Baudrillard and the Logic of Consumption: Freud, Saussure, and Lévi-Strauss
The Economy of Signs, in Rauschenberg ’s style. AI image Introduction: Consumption as a System of Signs In For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign , Jean Baudrillard rejects the familiar notion that people purchase goods simply to satisfy practical needs. He dismisses the image of the rational consumer choosing useful objects as a “thoroughly vulgar metaphysic” (Baudrillard, 1981, p. 63). A handbag, a tailored suit, or a luxury car cannot be understood merely through utility because their significance lies elsewhere: in the meanings they communicate socially. Rather than approaching consumption through economics alone, Baudrillard interprets it as a network of signs governed by hidden relations. To construct this theory, Baudrillard draws heavily on several major intellectual influences, especially Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. Freud provides a model of unconscious desire, Saussure contributes a theory of linguistic difference, and Lévi...