Modern consumerism is more concerned with the feeling of desire rather than the established needs. It approaches consumption with desire.
There are several accepted reasons why people consume, from the assertion of social or professional status, the attempt to emulate others or the search of pleasure and fulfillment of desires.
"The reason people want to acquire, posses, claim and display goods is because they expect the goods will make them happy, satisfy needs, or give them some other pleasure. Whether you approve or disapprove of this hedonic search for pleasure, the strength of desire is the engine that drives the marketplace."1
Desire stimulates the shopper and can sometimes push the mind into an ambitious conducts. It is an emotion and state of mind that can progress to an overwhelming and exiting feeling or to unrestrained and unconscious behavior.
If we point directly to the relationship between the extremes of desire and unconsciousness, to how the unreasonable determination of obtaining goods is sometimes only possible thru the resignation the of consciousness. In this extreme desire, the mind is overpowered by the thoughts of wanting and partially abandons reality to enter this frenzy and distracting state. "I want this dress so much, I am going to get it!", "What color will look the best on me", "Ou... what are these for?... I need them."
In this thesis I will focus on consumers state of unconsciousness and conceptualize it as a condition of mental distraction. One abandons the regular line of thoughts and substitutes them for unilateral consumerist thoughts and emotions. So What happens with our regular line of thoughts? It is silenced and numbed, like in stasis.
This combination of frenzy distraction and stasis is how i would define the shopping state of mind.
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1 A Critique of Desire: Distaste and Dislike in Consumer Behavior, Richard R. Wilk. Anthropology Department Indiana University.
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