The Metrospiritual, they say is looking for a spiritual connect in the products and services that he/she buys..., but looking at a consumer from the Freudian perspective can we say so?

If the answer is NO does that mean that the Freudian psycho-analysis is no longer valid for the modern consumer?

Let us analyse the two questions one byone...

Firstly, Freud states that a human being (which is our consumer) has three entities which together comprise the mind - The id, ego and the superego. The id according to Freud is a collection of innate desires and instincts which give us the pleasure of material satisfaction. The ego is completely rational and tries to find a balance between the id and the superego, which is a collection of all the moral lessons the individual has had. By defining the components in this way Freud eliminates the possibility of a spiritual connect, which is well in tune with the thought streams of the times, when he came out with his theory.

Carl Jung, who worked on this theory, later went on to hypothesize that the id was not merely animalistic in nature, but composed of a certain instinctive connect with the unconscious which had much greater depth and universal connectivity. These two viewpoints can be dismissed as subjective interpretations, but they do point to the fundamental issue of the need to have faith.

While Freud had tremendous faith in his own experiments and his results, Jung was more circumspect and decided to put his faith on an identity which he could not name, but he accepted as encompassing himself and everything else in the universe. Freud had an extremely deterministic view, which can be called modernistic, whereas Jung was more postmodern in approach. But both of them satisfied their need to have faith in something. So even though the psycho-analytic theory doesn't directly support a spiritual connect, it doesn't deny the need to have faith in something.

Now coming to the second question, can a theory which doesn't support the existence of a spiritual connect, be applied on consumers who are ostensibly exhibiting that spiritual connect? The answer could be YES and NO.

NO (because, people exhibiting the spiritual connect are not going to accept a theory which says people are animalistic in nature ), On a serious note, people exhibiting a spiritual connect doesn't mean that people will stop exhibiting characteristics that satisfy their "id". Most of these customers who exhibit this spiritual connect have evolved enough to drive their cognitive ability to develop their own view of life which also satisfies their need for faith. They will still be satisfying their "id", but will be cognitively aware of the process that is happening. So trying to sell products only on the basis of targeting the "id" might not work out.

On the contrary, it does make sense when you try to understand the consumer as a whole. The theory hasn't denied the need for faith in something, it only presumed a complete faith in the theory itself. The spiritual connect the consumers are longing for is to satisfy their need to have faith. It doesn't take away their basic nature. Humans are humans, even though we like to be God. It explains many of the basic human needs even though the modern consumer is having a spiritual connect. In the olden times this need for faith was satisfied by imposed dogmas. But the renaissance period changed the scene and paved the way for a more inquisitive society, which comprised of people who wanted to define their own faith. The postmodern society is craving for faiths and they want a buffet of items which satisfies all their needs. You cannot define the basic human needs without defining the "id". So the answer to the question - "Does Freud's theory have any significance in the modern world?" is YES.

 

-contributed by Joji Jose