W109SS08

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways." This quotation reminded me of Bernays and the film we saw in which he psychologically manipulated the masses into doing and believing certain things. It also reminds me of his ideas on propaganda and how it influences the masses to believe in a certain way.

"...our terrain has shaped a self that experiences a significant absence of community, tradition, and shared meaning. It experiences these social absences and their consequences "interiorly" as a lack of person conviction and worth, and it embodies the absences as a chronic, undifferentiated emotional hunger. The post-World War II self thus yearns to acquire and consume as an unconscious way of compensating for what has been lost: It is empty." (pg. 16)

I chose this quote because it basically sums up Chusman's argument presented in his article on the empty self. He believes that our modern culture is "empty" because of losses in the traditional values of the past. He goes on to state that the empty self looks to fill this void by consuming nonessential goods. To some degree, I agree with his theory. However, whenever such a large generalization is made about our culture, or any culture for that matter, there are aspects which seem to be ignored. While his ideology may be true for many people today, there are still those who find meaning in their lives through other venues. As our society has developed, I believe there has been a growing realization and acceptance of the idea that many people today attempt to fill this void via consumption. In turn, those aware of this detrimental situation strive to find meaning elsewhere. A counter-culture is beginning to develop and progress in opposition to this idea. While the masses may still validate his claims to a large degree, we cannot ignore those who find personal fulfillment in their lives by means other than consumption.

"...the current self is constructed as empty, and as a result the state controls its population not by restricting the impulses of its citizens, as in Victorian times, but by creating and manipulating their wish to be soothed, organized, and made cohesive by momentarily filling them up" (16).

I picked this quote because it almost summarizes Cushman's main point. I found it interesting because he is claiming that the self is empty and that it is filled or soothed through the devices of other people - (the invisible governors of Bernays?). He presented an interesting argument that we attempt to compensate for our "emptiness" through advertising and psychotherapy - we want to be like the model in the ads, thus we buy the product, we want to be like our therapist, thus we imitate him/her. Cushman, like Bernays, suggests that it is not by mere coincidence that this happens; but that it is a product of historical context and the small group of psychotherapists and head advertisers.

"The current self is constructed as empty, and as a result the state controls its population not by restricting the impulses of its citizens, as in Victorian times, but by creating and manipulating their wish to be soothed, organized, and made cohesive by momentarily filling them up."

According to Cushman, the individual has not only become nearly extinct, but it has become easily controllable as well. The psychology of the masses has been discovered, and therefore manipulation of such is easier than ever. The public has now accepted and even looks to be persuaded by advertisements, government, and other types of iconic figures. Cushman states that "humans are incomplete" and that they have become "patients" of the manipulation industry. All sense of small community has been lost with the age of new media and technology, and the notion that information can travel extraordinarily quickly. Where there was once an individualistic opinion is now a completely public estimation.

"The late 20th century has thus become an advertising executive's dream come true: Life-style has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a consumer who seeks, desperately, to buy."

The reason I chose this quote is because I believe it accurately describes the society we live in today. It reminds me of our nationwide obsession with celebrity moguls. It is why every time you purchase a fashion magazine, there are tons of articles on "How to get a killer bod like Beyonce" or information as to where you can purchase a similar skirt like the one Angelina Jolie was wearing. People become obsessed with celebrities and their lifestyles, trying to imitate their every move. It is as though people find pleasure in living a life that does not belong to them.

"We are witnessing and important shift in the content of the bounded, masterful self of the 20th century, a shift from a sexually restricted to an empty self. At the same time there has been a shift from a savings to a debtor economy. The dual shift has not been a coincidence. It is a consequence of how the modern nation state must currently regulate the economy and control its populace: not through direct physical coercion, but rather through the construction of the empty self and the manipulation of its needs to consume and ingest"(Cushman, 608).

The quote sums up adequately the major reasons why our economy shifted from a savings to debtor due in part to the regulation of the economy through different ways such as the propaganda. Consequently, Cushman suggest there was also a shift from the sexually restricted self to an empty self, all of which I do not comprehend.

The late 20th century has thus become an advertising executive's dream come true: Life-style has become a product that sells itself and the individual has become a consumer who seeks, desperately, to buy.
I chose this quote because it pretty much sums up the consumer society today. There are so many different life-styles that are being sold on the market that it is difficult not to fall into the category of one of them. Many product lines now have celebrities advertising for them by telling people that if they buy this shirt or that perfume, you are on your way to becoming just like jay-z or posh spice. Consumers become obsessed with celebrity lives and begin to "buy" their life-styles.

"The percentage of after -tax income that Americans have saved has decreased from a high of 25.5% in 1944 to less then 2% by 1986...In contrast, the Japanese rate is currently at 30% of after-tax income. During that same span of time the volume of consumer installment loans rose..."

these numbers/figures (irrelevant of accuracy) stood out to me in Chushman's Essay. The reported percentages represent a substantial alteration in lifestyle. This was post- WWII, newly post in fact, and during this time Bernay's had cemented consumerism to democracy (symbolically accepted/shoved into our minds during the world convention with GM in NY, 1939), which could explain why US savings shrank, they were all buying unnecessary shit they were hypnotized into buying.... and the fact that Japan supposedly averages to save 30% of their income after-taxes, well, stuns me. And reinforces the sad truth behind the consequences of our 'empty selves'
This article (along with the documentary) was quite depressing, but then again relieving in the sense that it provides an explanation to our (re)current affliction.

"..Americans have slowly changed from a Victorian people who had a deeply felt need to save money and restrict their sexual and aggressive impluses. Americans in the post WWII era seem to have become a people who have a deeply felt need to spend money and indulge their impluses."

I choose this particular quote because I think it gives a truthful assumption of how our society is today. It is evident that the present world we live in is so infatuated with buying good of all sorts especially goods that are completely unnecessary to have, for e.g. $250 rain boots. I feel that people today buy things without thinking because they automatically feel the need to “have to have” the hottest item on the market. I think it is ridiculous how people wait in lines at 2am in the morning or even earlier to buy a brand new gadget…for instance the iphone when it first came out, however that is just my opinion. So in conclusion, I agree 100% that society today deeply feels the need to spend money. I think one way or another everyone has contributed to this so called infatuation with consuming unnecessary goods and is therefore somewhat responsible for they way our society is today.

"Writers such as Lears (1983) and Modleski (1986) have argued that ads sell by convincing the public that a certain product is indispensable to their well-being or by implicitly addressing or exacerbating a personal fear in the customer that could be reassured or soothed by purchasing the product"(21).

Scary to think that ads are manipulating us to buy products out of fear rather than utility. Rather than convincing us that we are genuinely in need of a product, we're tricked into thinking we will quickly fall behind in a society centered around outdoing one another if we don't buy the product.

"Ads seem to criticize and condemn the average consumer while glorifying the model, extolling a standard of beauty and mastery impossible to achieve."

It is sad to think that our society is constantly trying to meet the media’s impossible standards of beauty. This in turn leads to unhappy body images and "an empty self." The wonders of Photoshop have invented unrealistic portrayals of women in magazines and advertisements and have contributed to an unattainable ideal of attractiveness. Not only are women represented in a distorted way, but men are also shown in the media as testosterone pumped and overly masculine. This forces men to feel like they do not measure up to society’s expectations. They feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become obsessed with improving their muscle mass. Women may have unrealistic expectations of attainable weight and body shape, associated with the Western emphasis on thinness. It is unfortunate that these self-conscious attitudes have led to an overwhelming amount of eating disorders, plastic surgery, materialism, and distorted body images.

"The self was conceived of as capable of personal change; impressing others and gaining their approval became an important aim in life, far outsripping the value of doing the morally correct act, which was dictated by one's character." pg 18

I found this quote to be interesting for a few reasons. Firstly because it is saying that people in our soceity are more concerned about what others perceive them as over anything else. We seem to always be searching for approval. I agree with this statement especially for kids in highschool and middle school who are always trying to find a group of friends for them to fit in with. There are so many different clicks and groups that kids try to conform to. I think even as we grow older everyone wants to belong to some kind of group. Thee seems to be a human instinct to want acceptance from others. I also found it interesting that it says we care more about what others think than doing the morally correct thing. I don't think that is normally true. I think in general people tend to help eachother out in simple ways such as helping someone who is lost. Yet in some ways I guess we humans will scarfice something we normally would call moral in order to get intiated in to a group.

"Three beneficiaries of this narcissistic dynamic are the modern state, the advertising industry, and the self-improvement industries (including psychotherapy). All three perpetuate the ideology of the empty self, and all three profit from it" (24).
Cushman throws down the gauntlet when he declares that these three entities are the sole beneficiaries of the exploitation of the "empty self." While I overwhelming agree that the advertisement agencies profit by exploiting the "empty self" (It is after all their job to find the most lucrative ways of selling stuff), and that the government and the self-improvement agencies use the concept of the empty self for their own particular needs, what about the role of the individual in this entire idea. I would add the role of the individual on to Cushman's list of beneficiaries. We are after all, human, therefore (call me an idealist) we have even if in limited cases the ability to reason. Therefore I do not believe that we are simply the victims of these industries, but to some degree allow ourselves to succumb to the allure and glamour of these entities. I think that we allow ourselves to maintain this notion of the empty self in modern society in order to assign significance, relevance and meaning to our lives.

"It [the self] must consume in order to be soothed and integrated; it must "take in" and merge with a self-object celebrity, an ideology, or a drug, or it will be in danger of fragmenting into feelings of worthlessness and confusion." (p. 22)

This quote first struck me because of its obvious truth in our current society - tween girls who want to be Hannah Montana, girls who want to be Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, guys who want to be basketball stars or perhaps even Brad Pitt (I wouldn't complain). However, what also interests me is that I don't believe this is applicable only to our current society, but rather to all of human society as far back as written history tells me. Religion is a great example - being that it is an ideology that fills and guides people and has filled the aforementioned emptiness of the soul for thousands of years. The self has probably always been empty. The article mentions the breakdown of things such as community and even the nuclear family. Religion is certainly not as strong as it used to be, and people need to do something with themselves. Hence we turn to products.

"...such an extreme preoccupation with the inner self causes the social world to be devalued or ignored except to the degree that it mirrors and thus becomes appropriated by the self. The social thus loses its impact as a material force, and social problems lose their relation to political action. Hence one sees the bumper sticker 'Visualize World Peace.'" (p.21)
I think this passage best articulates what we see on this campus and in the Santa Barbara area in general on a fairly often basis, mainly that the pervasiveness of consumer culture reinforces itself in making even the opposition to it a means of identity that facilitates consumerism. Looking at the Peace Store that opened on State Street or the useless volatility of student protest against the Iraq war on campus, a caustic callousness becomes evident that a kind of identity is fostered even through opting out of the typical sense of consumerism, but because this identity is still based on concepts of illusory satisfaction, even the most righteous of causes offer temporary fulfillment while trafficking in the blood of innocent people.

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways" (17).

This quote stuck out to me from Cushman's piece because it clearly illuminates how cultural norms determine everything for humans. Yet the most inconceivable part about this is the fact that even our cultures are constructed in such a way that we think it is natural. We fail to realize that everyday we unknowingly advance the notion that though we may not be exactly sure what we ARE, we know what we are NOT. This is the basis of why people are inherently afraid of things that are unlike or different from them (the basis of all conflict). Our so-called perspectives began to be mapped out for us from before we could formulate full thoughts.

“Inner emptiness may be expressed in many ways, such as low self-esteem (the absence of personal worth), value confusion (the absence of a sense of personal convictions), eating disorders (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with food, or to embody the emptiness by refusing food), drug abuse (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with chemically induced emotional experiences), and chronic consumerism (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with consumer items and the experience of “receiving” something from the world). Pg. 20

I found this quote to be interesting and somewhat touching in many ways. You always hear about the wild things people do to fill their sense of emptiness. This quote is surreal because even today tons of people attempt to fill in, what they think is missing about themselves, by expressing it in different ways. In my opinion these are extreme cases that people try to do in order to convey their emptiness. This quote is a good example of how young teenagers today sometimes express that their bodies are not good enough for the “normal social standards” by attempting to embody the “perfect body” they express their version of emptiness, of themselves, through eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.

“This is a powerful illusion. And what fuels the illusion, what impels the individual into this illusion, is the desperation to fill up the empty self. Currently, the self is not only suffering from feeling unreal, and thereby somewhat passively hoping for a cure, as it did at the turn of the century. It is also aggressively, sometimes desperately, acquisitive. It must consume in order to be soothed and integrated; it must “take in” and merge with a self-object celebrity, an ideology, or drug or it will be in danger of fragmenting into feelings of worthlessness and confusion” (Page 22)

To me this quote sums up the culture of advertising. Many advertisements are designed to play on our desires, attempting to appeal to aspects of life that encompass wealth, social status and luxury. This powerful illusion that advertising creates is the driving force behind consumerism. Advertisements are everywhere, from television, radio, newspapers to product placement and celebrity endorsement. It is hard to avoid the constant display of products. This quote explains that we use this advertising to fill the gaps we have in our own lives by purchasing the items that celebrities use or are rated number one in various reports. This can give us a feeling of accomplishment, as if we are better because we have purchased certain possessions. If we are unable to obtain our desires it can leave the “self” more empty. According to this quote, we are a greedy society that depends on the illusion of what is desirable to regulate our purchases in order to feel complete.

"...at times the country floundered in recessions. Eventually it found a way into postwar prosperity through the creation and use of universal, easy credit. Credit made the new economy go." (p.19)

It's funny that credit became the answer to the country's recession problem. It seems today, credit creates more problems since people are pressured and manipulated into indulging their impulses. People buy more than they can afford and place themselves in a trap. The percentage of people in debt is high in this country. More than anyone would think. They believe in the phrase "money buys happiness" and try to fulfill their desires. Media puts lots of pressure on peoples' desires. Seeing these lifestyles and products consumed by the "majority," people's impulses become larger. We live in a materialistic society. People are inately competitive. Everyone wants what the other has, and everyone wants the best of things. We are all victims to this. How hard would it be to access the internet at home if you still owned a typewriter today?

"It is a self that seeks the experience of being continually filled up by consuming goods, calories, experiences, politicians, romantic partners, and empathic therapists in an attempt to combat the growing alienation and fragmentation of its era."
As I read along the Bernay’s article, it came to me rather disturbing the idea of propaganda and how manipulation and governing of people worked through invisible government. However, this quotation points out that it is us, the people, who are in fact in need of such act to fill out their emptiness, although it might seem to be an inevitable consequence of being such a self from social changes as whole after World War II, and I think propaganda might have been an important tool to meet such needs in more efficient way. In my opinion, Propaganda has contributed to manipulating people’s mind to desire and consume more than they need but at the same time it helped to fill up the needs of people with already emptied minds.

“Unlike character, which is centered on personal moral integrity, advice manuals of the time taught that personality was synonymous with becoming liked by others. The self was conceived of as capable of personal change; impressing others and gaining their approval became an important aim in life, far outstripping the value of doing the morally correct act, which was dictated by one’s character.”

I chose this quote because I thought it accurately describes the people in modern society who always seek for validation from others. People on an MTV show called “Made” try so hard to become a totally different person from who he/she has been. They usually don’t like what they are remembered by and want to change their reputation. A prom queen plays football and a geek learns how to do breakdancing. They seem to be very happy when they are “made” and people applaud for what they have become. They might insist it was their all-time dream; but it is sad to see them trying so hard to get approval from other people. Also, I agree with the point that personality became synonymous with becoming liked by others. People might assume that you have good “personality” if you have many friends or comments written on your wall on Facebook. I think personality is being truthful to oneself rather than being liked by others. I hope we would care less about what other people think of them as and at the same time accept others as the way they are.

"Life-style has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a consumer who seeks, desperately, to buy"

Everyone is buying into name brands and more expensive things because that is how society makes you think. Society wants you to grave all these expensive things that you think you can’t live without, this is why these things are luxuries because they are expensive and majority of people want them. Everyone wants to appear to be wealthy to their fellow peers. Take Juicy Couture for example, their key target is to women and girls who want to appear as classy and wealthy citizens. The life-style that advertisers are promoting is to be seen as wealthy and upper class. Individuals long for this characteristic because society makes you think the more and better stuff you have the better of a person you are. However if society didn’t advertise for luxury products I believe citizens would still buy majority of more expensive products because everyone wants to out shine everyone else, so they appear better then the norm.

“Unlike character, which is centered on personal moral integrity, advice manuals of the time taught that personality was synonymous with becoming liked by others. The self was conceived of as capable of personal change; impressing others and gaining their approval became an important aim in life, far outstripping the value of doing the morally correct act…” (CR p.18)

Consumerism has gotten so out of hand that people’s personalities and identities are now viewed as commodities. Our personalities/identities are items that can be sold and therefore must be presented in ways that will appeal to others. We must treat our personality as we treat our hair…cutting it, dying it, styling it based on current trends. We learn how to “advertise” our identity by making it more attractive to others. Unfortunately, just as “flash is valued over substance” in the product market, “impressing others and gaining their approval” is valued over “doing the morally correct act” in the personality market.

Post-World War II society has taught us that everything, down to our personal identity, is for sale and therefore must be presented in a way that others (not ourselves) find appealing. The problem lies in the nature of an identity as something constant and stable. By seeing our identities as malleable and constantly trying to change them to fit the standards of other people, we are creating for ourselves an identity crisis (contributing further to the empty self). Identities are NOT commodities and CANNOT be changed so we resort to products as a way to represent our false identities.

Cigarette ads that feature the Marlboro Man, Camel's man-beast who is a "smooth character," or the Virginia Slim's model who has "come a long way, baby"; and of course toothpaste and deodorant ads that transform models with instant sex appeal and popularity. These customers buy life-style in a vain attempt to transform their lives because their lives are unsatisfying and ultimately unfixable." (p. 22)

I found this passage extremely interesting due to its relevance with modern-day media. Advertisements use "lifestyle" as something that can be bought. I find this scary because I too have purchased a product with the further intent of obtaining a life style. I remember when the iPod shuffle was first released. Their slogan was, "Life is Random". Seeking spontaneity, I went out and purchased Apple's trendy new product. However, having the new iPod shuffle did not make my life more exciting or energetic like the dancing black silhouettes promised; it only made me more frustrated because I was unable to choose the songs I wanted to listen to.
(I returned it and bought an iPod color a week later)

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways" (17)

This quotation really caught my eye because not only did it describe society in the past but it continues to escalate into the future. More and more, it seems people are depending on trends and popular culture to guide their lifestyle and interpret their way of thinking. If it is "cool" to wear a certain style of clothing or shoes for one season people will go out and sell their first born to get in on that trend. Our minds are programmed to follow whatever culture or aka the media tells us to do. We are empty and lost without these guidelines. What would most people do without popular culture or trends? Dare I say it... think for themselves?!?!?

"The construction of the empty self is, in fact, a product of a central cultural paradox. The self of our time is expected to function in a highly autonomous, isolated way. To accomplish this it is thought that the individual must develop an ability to be self-soothing, self-loving, and self-sufficient."
The definition of our current sense of self was the main point of focus for the article and it was particularly interesting to me because I do believe there is a large portion of the population who are falling into this ideology of the self, in my personal opinion, there are a few competing ideas of the self and the one noted in this article is one of them.

"Ads seem to criticize and condemn the average consumer while glorifying the model, extolling a standard of beauty and mastery impossible to achieve... One prominent type of ad offers the fantasy that the customer's life can be transformed into glorious, problem-free life- the "life" of the model who is featured in the ad."(21)

People seek happiness in any way they can find it and for many happiness lies in the way others perceive them; if everyone sees that person as better, more beautiful or powerful, then that person feels happy about him/herself. Ads make you think that by purchasing some kind of product you will stand out from everyone else and appear as more beautiful/handsome than the average person. They make you believe you can buy happiness. Ads also make you believe that by purchasing a product, you don't have to worry about your problems because that product will make your problems disappear. For example car commercials, they make you think that by buying that car your life will be easier and nothing in the world will matter. Of course that isn't true because car payments sure won't make your life easier. Companies need to find ways of manipulating consumer's into buying their products even if it means exaggerating what the product has to offer.

"The advertising industry, which Lears thought was another manifestation of "the therapeutic", attempted to cure by implying that products would magically "transform" the customer's life. In order to do that, ads became progressively less informative and more evocative, associating the product with happy, clean, vigorous models." (page 18)

I picked this quote because I feel it describes the transition from advertising before World War II to they type of advertising used after the war. Not only did they type of advertising change, but the products advertised where changed as well. Before World War II, products were advertised as something the consumer truly needed, after the war, they were advertised as a necessity to improve and fill the ‘empty self’. The new strategy to advertise was to create ads that would convince consumers they needed the product to be happy and because celebrities think highly of the product. This is an important quote because it describes exactly what ads consist of today. Ads hardly contain any information about the product; they just show the product, often with celebrities and people who look happy with the product. The entire point of ads now is to try to convince the consumer that their life would be better and more fulfilling if they had this product.

"These customers buy life-style in a vain attempt to transform their lives because their lives are unsatisfying and (without massive societal change) ultimately unfixable. But without the option of providing a viable solution through the vehicle of structural change, advertising can only offer the illusory exchange of one life for another"
I felt that this quote basically summed up the way in which people in our society are constantly being brainwashed by dominant paradigms that are ultimately created by the few people who are in control of the media. It brilliantly mentioned how many of us have been blindfolded by luxuries that only seem to distract us from reality by creating an illusory happiness and freedom that prevents us from recognizing the problems and issues that although may have seemed to disappear continue to thrive.

"Humans do not have a basic, fundamental, pure human nature that is transhistorical and transcultural. Humans are incomplete and therefore unable to function adequately unless embedded in a specific cultural matrix." (page 17)

I chose this quote because I agree with Cushman's argument that individuals really cannot function purely as individuals, we are always part of some larger group or population. Whether we recognize ourselves as a certain nationality, religion, etc., or we subconsciously are part of the mass population of the consumer society, the importance of the individual has become vastly overshadowed by the value of greater society. I think Cushman is completely correct in saying that we are "incomplete," and to fill this void created by ignoring individuality, we are encouraged to consume, drawing us even further from the individualism we seek.

"By this I mean that our terrain has shaped a self that experiences a significant absence of community, tradition, and shared meaning. It experiences these social absences and their consequences "interiorly" as a lack of personal conviction and worth, and it embodies the absences as a chronic, undifferentiated emotional hunger.[...]It is a self that seeks the experience of being continually filled up by consuming goods, calories, experiences, politicians, romantic partners, and empathic therapists in an attempt to combat the growing alienation and fragmentation of its era." (pg.16)

Cushman's view seems to be that consumerism was fueled by Americans' needs to fulfill the empty self. Indeed, I agree that America became a far bigger consumerism society than it ever had been and changed advertising and how people think about products. However, I am disappointed that his explanation is vague about the mechanism by which the "empty self" came to be. He says that people consumed products to fill a void left by lack of relationships and community, which may be true to a degree but I think lacks context. I think there are alternative factors working towards post WWII consumerism. For example, WWII came right after the Depression and ultimately was a huge factor in pulling the U.S. out of the Depression. Perhaps the consumerism that followed was less a factor of fulfilling the empty self and more so of being able to purchase products that they couldn't previously. People could not purchase much during the Depression and were still limited during the war because supplies were needed for the military. After the U.S. came out of the war they were able to buy products that were unavailable for years. In fact it could be seen as patriotic to consume to keep the economy going. This is not to say that Cushman's point is wrong, just that there may be other factors, not simply an empty vessel to be filled. This is important because this factors into how people think about products and their motivations to buy something.

"In the decades immediately following World War II, the United States developed an economy that depended on the continual production and consumption of nonessential and quickly obsolete products, celebrities, and experiences" (Lowe, 1988)

I chose this quote because it describes the reasoning for the transition towards an empty self that Cushman tries to prove throughout his article. The new era and new self emerged with the urban, industrialized population following the war. Cushman describes the new economy as reason for loss of community and thus emergence of the empty self.

"Psychotherapy is one of the professions responsible for healing the post-WWII self. Unfortunately, many psychotherapy theories attempt to treat the modern self by reinforcing the very qualities of self that have initially caused the problem: its autonomous, bounded, masterful nature. The patient is diagnosed as empty and fragmented, usually without addressing the sociohistorical predicament that caused the emptiness and fragmentation. Thus, through the activity of helping, psychology's discourse and practices perpetuate the causes of the very problems it is trying to treat. (p.17)"

The self is empty because it thrives in a culture of alienation that encourages independence. However, I have a hard time believing that psychology reinforces this cycle because its goal is to help people. Yes, psychologists are influenced by the same society so they probably have the same ideals but if patients come to them for a problem, their goal is to fix it, not worsen it. If they fee lonely, a psychologist is not going to say "good, that means you're independent!" They will suggest community building activities or something of the sort. Though our society is alienated, there is still some form of community. We live in a society that perpetuates independence but that doesn't mean everyone has to be miserable! City life makes it hard to form a community because you don't see the same people everyday but people still join clubs and partake in other forms of community. I think I automatically feel the need to defend psychology as a psych major but I suppose I could see their point. I think they need to elaborate a bit, possibly give an example or what exactly psychotherapy encourages. What would be the right thing for psychologists to do? If they make their patients act contrary to what society perpetuates, they could live a miserable life not fitting into the mold! If the problem needs to be fixed, it must be fixed from the root of society. We must change the way people view and act in their surroundings.

“In the decades immediately following World War II, the United States developed an economy that depended on the continual production and consumption of nonessential and quickly obsolete products, celebrities, and experiences.”

I chose this quote because I feel that it accurately describes our society today. We are constantly bombarded with new products which we feel like we absolutely need to have, but once we purchase them, the industry creates something new, or a more advanced version of the same item, and we go out and buy it even thought the old one is still functional. This made me think of a recent incident I had with my computer. I needed to purchase a new battery for my laptop so I called the store to see if they had it in stock. When I told the salesperson the name and model of my laptop he replied, “Wow that is really old.” My laptop only came out about a year ago. I was pretty shocked. This constant production and marketing of new goods leads to an over consumption. Things we buy are so much a part of how we define ourselves that there is this ever-present need to buy in order to feel adequate. Same with trends and celebrities, there is always something new. The speed with which we go through this stuff makes me feel like our entire society has ADD. We just need to slow down.

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them them to think and act in certain wags (Heiddeger, 1962/1977). (p. 17)

I picked this quote because it illustrates the observable fact that one's "culture" can influence the formation of their personal identity. Identity is a social construction which links the individual to the group in his or her thoughts and actions. This formation of "self" through shared cultural experiences shapes the individual's beliefs and reactions with others of different identity constructions. I have a strong interest in identity politics and this concept is quite true in my opinion.

"Personal fulfillment is seen to reside within the purview of the individual, who is supposed to be self-sufficient and self-satisfied. For this self there are supposed to be no limits to achievement and enjoyment. Middle-class Caucasians born in the baby boom era directly following World War II were told that they were the privileged generation of the most privileged and powerful country in the world." P.19

The United States was in depression for 20 years prior to entering World War 2. During this time, a majority of the citizens were living in hunger. The only fulfillment for them was a meal and a place to sleep and keep warm. After WWII, United States were able to come out from depression and the economy began to thrive. Soon, Americans needs more than just food and a place to stay. Leisure time, is plentiful and allowed for personal enjoyment. This leads to many desire for materialistic needs to fulfill oneself. Thus I think it is very important to relate the Great Depression and the economic boom for the individual fulfillment and desire for the post war era.

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus on their attention or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways (Heiddeger, 1962/1977)"

This is the most perfect sentence I personally thought explained this article. We are force fed so many things yet we still make choices and feel whole, it is when these decisions aren't made or reinforced for us that we become "alone."

I am in sales, it is so easy to make a sale tuning into peoples emotional wants. People just want an explanation that they can relate too or understand, after that, they become comfortable, accept, and move with.

The news, advertisements, and other things all tell us what we need, like, and want even before we have the option to take into account our own interests.

"Culture 'completes' humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways."

I thought this quote was important because it exposes the power that society possesses in shaping the self and people in general. This point helps to demonstrate the fact that self perception and identity formation is not under the individual's control, and explains how over time, values and perceptions of the self are inescapably altered with the changes that occur in the larger world over which the individual lacks control.

“The dual shift [from a sexually restricted self to an empty self…and from a savings to debtor economy] has not been a coincidence. It is a consequence of how the modern nation state must currently regulate its economy and control its population not through direct physical coercion, but rather through the construction of the empty self and the manipulation of its needs to consume and ingest. Three beneficiaries of this narcissistic dynamic are the modern state, the advertising industry, and the self-improvement industries” (Cushman, 68).

This quote sums up the argument that Cushman makes throughout his paper. He observes that society as a whole has made a deliberate shift from a society of calculated, repressed individuals, to one of empty individuals. Pre-World War II, people in the United States were social beings; people who relied on other people and helped others for its own sake rather than their own self-interested reasons. Cushman argues that since this time, people have become more self-sufficient and independent. He also argues that, conversely, people are less able to meet this standard of independence because they are brought up in a society surrounded by other people all concerned with themselves over others. This has created a society filled with individuals who don’t know how to complete themselves. This is a self-perpetuating cycle and it is intentional. The people who benefit from it—the government, the advertisers, and those in the self-help industries—take actions that will ensure that people do not leave this state of emptiness.

"Let me suggest that, without the therapist being aware of it, practice deviates from normative discourse by following the therapist to function as a model for the patient, by providing corrective emotional experiences of care, respect, and understanding, and by allowing the patient to "take in" the therapists ideas, values and personal styles."
I picked this quotation because it directly reflects the psychotherapy that is used towards the consumer. If one looks at the "therapist" as the leader, people will tend to come along. It is not only a guide shown here, but a way to follow an idea in order to reform the patients life. If put into a consumer context, the "patient" is the consumer looking up to the "therapist" and trying to follow them by reflecting and modeling the product.

"Susman (1973, pp. 271 - 285) has demonstrated how, especially in America, the quest for developing a secular personality came to take precedence over building religious character. Unlike character, which is centered on personal moral integrity, advice manuals of the time taught that personality was synonymous with becoming liked by others. The self was conceived of as capable of personal change; impressing others and gaining their approval became an important aim in life, far outstripping the value of doing the morally correct act, which was dictated by one’s character. Riesman, Glazer, and Denny (1953) and Fromm (1955) have also described the inner-directed, self-reliant rugged individualist who began to give way to the outer-directed, socially skilled salesperson-type of individual.”

The empty self which was developing at the same time as the dates in this quotation is supposed to be a bounded self that seeks personal growth instead of relationships with others. If this is the case, then why were people learning how to make other people like them? It could be a reaction to the individual’s subconscious knowledge that they miss the ties to the community that the non-empty self gave them; the individual reaches out and tries to reestablish those ties by entertaining others. Unfortunately, this is futile; the individual cannot create true ties of friendship based on closeness and trust when they too busy concentrating on propping up their social face, which may be a concoction of seperation and falsehoods designed to showcase a particular role instead of the individual’s true nature.

"culter "completes" humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways"

I chose this quote because these days we hear alot about the idea of "culture" whether it be in discussion of a certain group of cultures or a clash of cultures as the "western culture vs. islamic culture" war wages on. Without this idea of culture, humans would just be humans, but when you place a human in American culture, there are no longer just humans, they are Americans.
I find this idea very interesting, as it really shows how one's surroundings and upbringings determine what type of person they are.

"Culture 'completes' humans."

Culture rules.

"Slowly, as the modern age dawned and developed, the self became the container for that which could be hidden from others and from oneself."

The idea that consumer society allows us to completely ignore and disregard ourselves as well as others through the distractions of merely products is something I found to be exceptionally strong. It seems interesting to me that we are all unconscious to the fact that this might be happening to us without our own realization of it.

“The late 20th century has thus become an advertising executive’s dream come true: Life-style has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a consumer who seeks, desperately, to buy” (Cushman 22).
As an applied psychology minor, I truly understand the dangers of how producers use mind tricks to market their products in advertisements. By brainwashing the mass public, the media is able to convince the average consumer that they are worthless without their products, which fuels severe self-criticism and leads to an overwhelming amount of distorted body images, eating disorders, therapy and plastic surgery, a form of consumerism in itself. Advertisers are able to manipulate the public’s way of thinking by glorifying an unrealistic standard of beauty, which is only possible by way of Photoshop and airbrushing. This process ultimately forces the average American to feel like nothing without these products, that they are “empty” without these material possessions. Unfortunately, a desperate consumer feels the need to fill what Cushman refers to as the “empty self” and resort to being sucked into this vicious cycle of chronic consumerism.

“Culture ‘completes’ humans by explaining and interpreting the world, helping them to focus their attention on or ignore certain aspects of their environment, and instructing and forbidding them to think and act in certain ways” (601).

This quote from “Why the Self is Empty” by Philip Cushman is an interesting explanation for the “self” that most people identify with. People strive to be independent and make decisions based on their own personal thoughts and beliefs for their “self.” In reality, most thoughts and ways of life are reflections of their culture. In this way, the identity of everyone’s “self” is influenced largely by what society deems as acceptable and right.