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Synopsis
In Shopping with Freud, the author asks: what do we mean when we say 'consumer'? Tracking the complexity of the question through literature and psychology texts: Lolita, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and Freud's work on the Anna O. case, the book examines the surprising manifestations of the consumer subject in these works. Whether the helpless, female victim of advertising deliberately frought with psychological undercurrents to motivate buying, or the rational, male agent demanding his rights to goods and services, the meanings and appearances of the consumer are discussed and dissected, as well as the "two-way street" of influence between psychology and consumer culture.
Bowlby shows how ideas about consumption are brought to bear on questions of choice in areas seemingly far removed from shopping, and how assumptions and arguments about the psychology of consumers throw light on questions of human subjectivity. Shopping with Freud will be of great interest to readers in cultural studies, sociology, literature, psychology, business studies and women's studies.