Serious Shopping: Psychotherapy and Consumerism

The phenomenon of addictive shopping is a popular subject for the media. The stereotype of those who indulge in it, in a context of relative affluence, is usually of women - bored, maybe slightly depressed. This book presents a starker reality. The contributors, from either personal or theoretical perspectives, convey something of the desperation of the experience.

Adrienne Baker considers the concept of addiction in relation to shopping and asks whether all-consuming shopping is a separate phenomenon or just an extreme of an everyday activity. Listening to people who see themselves as addictively shopping and who try to find meaning in what they are doing, she explores the contradiction of impoverishment in the midst of plenty.

As with other addictive behaviours, addictive shopping is both functional and dysfunctional. There is, however, a distinction, for shopping is an expected and an acceptable activity: we are exhorted to shop, the images offer fulfilment of desire. Yet, for the person who seeks in it a salve for emotional pain, the magic doesn’t work: the brave attempt to heal the self fails.