The psychic life of consumer power: Judith Butler, Ernest Dichter, the American marketing reception of Freud, and the rituals of consuming religion
First, a close reading of Judith Butler’s The Psychic Life of Power underscores the ways in which Butler’s account of power liquidates issues of political economy and problematically ontologizes Freudianism as a kind of first philosophy of the subject. Second, drawing largely from secondary sources,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2021
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| In: |
Critical research on religion
Year: 2021, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 8-30 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Butler, Judith 1956-, The psychic life of power
/ Dichter, Ernest 1907-1991
/ Freud, Sigmund 1856-1939
/ USA
/ Reception
/ Religion
/ Consumer behavior
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
Consumption
B Ernest Dichter B Judith Butler B Performativity B Neoliberalism B Ritualization |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | First, a close reading of Judith Butler’s The Psychic Life of Power underscores the ways in which Butler’s account of power liquidates issues of political economy and problematically ontologizes Freudianism as a kind of first philosophy of the subject. Second, drawing largely from secondary sources, the religious studies reader is introduced to the life and work of Ernest Dicther, the father of motivational research, an influential American mid-twentieth century psychoanalytic school of marketing that Freudianized marketing discourse and transformed it into the present day. Third, drawing from primary sources in Dichter’s published archive, a comparative reading of Butler and Dichter reveals strong points of confluence around the psychology and performativity of (consumer) ritual, concomitantly highlighting scholars’ hidden participation in the American religious history Kathryn Lofton figures according to the terms of ‘consuming religion’. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-3040 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/2050303220952871 |