ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines ideas about identity, desire and excess in modern consumer capitalism before moving on to look at the contradictory meanings of consumption itself, followed by their interaction with ideas about addiction. Consumption is a global force as well as a site for new forms of social pathology. The dynamic of consumption is an ambivalent one, however. As well as a source of self-realisation, authenticity and desire, it can also be regarded as a site of danger and conflict, and this is especially so when its pleasures are associated with marginalised social groups. The negative associations of consumption, consumere, as a force that can destroy the individual, have some resonance with the original meaning of 'addiction'. In particular, the general idea of addiction brings us back to ideas about the commodity. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
