The Strategy of Desire

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Transaction Publishers - 314 страница
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.

Ernest Dichter (1907-1991) was consulting psychologist for the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1943 to 1946, president of the Institute for Motivational Research, and founder of Ernest Dichter Associates International. His books include, The Psychology of Everyday Life, Handbook of Consumer Motivation, Motivating Human Behavior, and The Naked Manager. Arthur Asa Berger is professor of broadcast and electronic communication arts at San Francisco State University.
 

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INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION
5
THE MASK OF BEHAVIOR
25
THE DISCOVERY OF MOTIVATIONS
33
COMMAND OR PERSUASION
48
MEASURING HUMAN EMOTIONS
60
THE SOUL OF THINGS
85
WE THINK AS WE PLEASE
111
THE WHOLISTIC APPROACH
144
THE VISIONS BEFORE US
187
THE FEAR OF CHANGE
205
THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY
226
MISERY OF CHOICE
242
THE BURDEN OF THE GOOD LIFE
253
SEARCH FOR A GOAL
265
APPENDIX I
283
APPENDIX II
289

INTRODUCTION
165
THE PSYCHOECONOMIC AGE
167

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