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The Strategy of Desire (Hardcover)
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The Strategy of Desire (Hardcover)
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Ernest Dichter is famous as one of the founding fathers of
motivational research. In applying the social sciences to a variety
of problems, Dichter emphasized new approaches to problem solving,
advertising, politics, and selling, and issues of social
significance such as urban renewal, productivity, and drug
addiction. As an author and corporate adviser, he used
psychoanalytic theory and depth interviewing to uncover
unconsciously held attitudes and beliefs. He goal was to help
explain why people act the way they do and how positive behavioral
change might be achieved. In The Strategy of Desire, Dichter both
counters the argument that motivational research amounts to
manipulation, and shows how the understanding and modification of
human behavior is necessary for progress. Dichter's survey and
analysis of behavior ranges widely. He examines everyday matters of
product choice, as well as such broad civic issues as voter
participation, religious toleration, and racial understanding. He
shows that in order to achieve socially constructive goals, it is
necessary to move beyond theological exhortation, which takes an
unrealistic view of human morality, as well as beyond the limits of
empirically oriented social science research, which only deals in
appearances. Dichter sees human action as rooted in irrational and
often unconscious motivation, which can usually be uncovered if the
correct approach is used. In his consumer research, he analyzes the
nonutilitarian importance of objects in everyday life, as well as
how products and materials become bound with emotional resonance or
acquire different meanings from different contexts or points of
view. Dichter shows that success depends on the satisfaction of
desires and a movement beyond the ethic of work and saving. Arguing
that in an increasingly technological world, progress and social
harmony are materially based, he advocates a morality of the good
life in which prosperity and leisure lead to greater human
self-assurance in the face of change. First published in 1960, The
Strategy of Desire is especially timely in the age of the Internet
and ever-increasing effect of sophisticated computer technology on
consumer culture.
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