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,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gonzalez, George (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2021
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
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)
Description
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’.
ISSN:2050-3040
Contains:Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/2050303220952871