Overview
A study on the nature of choice, and how limitless freedom can lead to despair. It explores how late capitalism's shrill exhortations to 'be oneself' can be a tyranny which only leads to ever-greater disquiet and how insistence on choice being a purely individual matter prevents social change.
Today we are encouraged to view our lives as being full of choice. Like products on a supermarket shelf, our identities seem to be there for the choosing. But paradoxically this freedom can create anxiety, and feelings of guilt and inadequacy. In The Tyranny of Choice, acclaimed philosopher and sociologist Renata Salecl explores how late capitalism''s shrill exhortations to ''be yourself'' are leading to ever-greater disquiet - and how its insistence on choice being a purely individual matter can prevent social change.
Drawing on diverse examples from popular culture - spanning dating sites and self-help books, to our obsession with celebrities'' lifestyles - and fusing sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy, Salecl shows that choice is rarely based on a simple rational decision with a predictable outcome.
Drawing on diverse examples from popular culture - spanning dating sites and self-help books, to our obsession with celebrities'' lifestyles - and fusing sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy, Salecl shows that choice is rarely based on a simple rational decision with a predictable outcome.
- | Author: Renata Salecl
- | Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
- | Publication Date: Aug 04, 2011
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language:
- | Binding: Paperback / softback
- | ISBN-13: 9781846681868
- | ISBN-10: 1846681863