3.4. Therapeutic Functions of the World of Things - Consumer Psychology

A person, as a rule, does not notice the enslavement by things, since they are willing to accept their regulatory-compensatory function. In addition to meeting the needs of everyday things, as well as money, they constantly and cyclically-controlledly ensure that a person experiences his existence, playing a regulatory and therapeutic role. The system of things is homologous to the system of habits (visual-automated component of character). This is facilitated by discreteness, classifiability, unlimited repeatability and substitutability of things.

The human world, the social world, in contrast to the material, is characterized by integrity and originality, uniqueness and singularity. He makes his demands on a person, he is complex and conflicted, he is normative and contradictory.

Surroundings and possession of things are necessary, like dreams, because they provide the necessary psychological defense mechanism. The therapeutic function of things consists in their ability to replace, deny reality, providing escape from it. In the words of J. Baudrillard, a thing receives the mental load that relations with people should have assumed, but it is at this price that things acquire their enormous regulatory force ²³ . Things that fail at the interpersonal level assume things. For example, the virtues of a thing elevate, but do not limit the personality, therefore, possession of things, money, increases self-esteem.

Relations between people are realized in the sphere of uniqueness and conflict. Therefore, relationships in the world of people are a source of fear, uncertainty. And the coexistence of many things in a person’s life is not hindered by their differences, things are meekly composed in consciousness. When communicating with the outside world, it is possible to combine their absolute singularity and unlimited seriality.

To illustrate the power function of a thing with a powerful regulatory and therapeutic effect, we use such a thing as a TV. Besides the fact that this is an intermediate phenomenon, which is also a technical household device, and a certain dynamic concentrate of the social environment, the TV provides simplified communication, one-sided surrogate communication that does not require tension, attention to the partner and experience how you are perceived. Therefore, it can be used not only as a source of information, a way of rest and relaxation, but also to become a kind of drug.

Computer is often even more enslaving, replacing the person with adequate communication and activity, offering him surrogate forms of life activity, involving him in virtual reality and narrowing the real social space.

Selectivity and self-control, the use of various methods of tuning the power of the market and things, the essence of which consists mainly in active and creative interaction with the outside world, helps to neutralize the negative effects of the expansion of the world of things into the social and spiritual world.

Obviously, with the help of things, money, you can control the behavior and activities of people, which makes economic and psychological knowledge responsible to society. The problem of the relationship between the material and the spiritual in man is as old as the world, and again new during a crisis because of the danger of the excessive influence of the world of things on man. The problems of the psychology of the relationship of man with the world of things, its management through advertising and sales methods need further thought, since compatriots, having freed themselves from the power of scarcity and increasingly joining consumer society, are experiencing certain difficulties and deformations in relations with a diverse market. The younger generation is especially sensitive to the manipulation and external management of their economic behavior.