Under the sign of Narcissus: identity in consumer society and cyberspace

Abstract

This work starts from some contemporary aspects of capitalism, the hegemony of consumption, the diversification of goods and the immateriality. These aspects are related to a change in the mechanisms of social reproduction: the replacement of discipline (Foucault) with control (Deleuze) and seduction (Baudrillard). This change is associated to a new psychic economy, based upon the imperative of enjoyment and the resulting dissatisfaction (Lacan, Žižek), and characterized by the narcissism (Lasch). The article shows how the narcissism articulates itself, in a general way, to the construction of identity through image and market and, specifically, to the construction of identity through cyberspace.