Capital, Mirroring and Bureaucratic Inhibitions
Hyperreactive World Wide Web shopping accelerates the rate at which a consumer can acquire goods. What once separated a mere advertisement from a tangible purchase is now bridged by nothing more than a few mouse clicks. Late capitalism, far from merely accelerating the circulation of capital, also accelerates the velocity at which individuals adopt new identities. Identity formation becomes entwined with the desire to consume, resulting in the imperative for capitalism’s acceleration to align with the schizophrenic pace of identity metamorphosis. The internet stands as a hypermediated conduit for more fluid, rapid, and profitable modes of identity formation. It is within this relentless cultural acceleration that the contours of our subjectivities are continually moulded, discarded, and refashioned, a process intertwined with the ceaseless rhythm of advertisement and consumption.
Fredric Jameson posits that in the past, narratives derived from sources such as religion, community, and history played a significant role in shaping human identities. People were capable of constructing their sense of self by sincerely embracing pre-established stories. This process allowed subjects to emerge in a circular relationship with history, as identity formation was contingent upon accepting narratives that existed prior to their own existence. However, with postmodernity, Jameson contends that these once prevalent, overarching narratives have progressively waned in their influence over the broader public. The decline of these grand, unifying stories creates a void in the contemporary landscape, comparable in certain respects to the schismatic experience delineated by Jacques Lacan’s theory on schizophrenia.
In contemplating Lacan’s account of schizophrenia, Jameson’s intention is not to ascertain its clinical validity, but rather to explore it as a conceptual framework. In Lacanian terms, schizophrenia unfolds as a ruptured signifying chain;
“when that relationship breaks down, when the links of the signifying chain snap, then we have schizophrenia in the form of a rubble of distinct and unrelated signifiers” (Jameson, 1991, p. 26).
Schizophrenia manifests as a series of disjointed signifiers when the bonds of this signifying chain rupture. This malfunction becomes linked to the psyche of the schizophrenic, as identity emerges from the temporal unification of past, present, and future — a hermeneutic circle across time. If we fail to unify the temporal dimensions, our own biographical experience and psychic life suffer a similar fragmentation. The aesthetic and cultural ramifications of this turmoil leads to a chaotic and disorganised state, somewhat like during infancy.
As per Lacanian developmental theory, all human beings experience a mirror stage, as the child undergoes a process of self-recognition and identification, around 6–18 months. At this juncture, the infant’s fragmented sense of existence starts to coalesce into a cohesive and singular subjectivity. Prior to this stage, life appears as a disjointed sequence of events — a noise over there or a hunger pang there. In infancy, the child dwells in a disjointed present, their sense of self yet to coalesce into unity.
Much like the mirror stage in Lacan’s framework, where individuals endeavour to construct their sense of self in their formative years, the mirror stage of advertisement transpires as a parallel phenomenon. However, in this context, the subjects do not engage in self-formation during infancy; instead, they mirror themselves and forge their identities through the commercial domain and the material signifiers it provides. Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed CEO and internet entrepreneur, argues that
“The mirroring that Lacan describes happens when a woman looks at idealised images in a fashion magazine, when a teenager stares at a poster of a rock star, or when the man on the street gazes up at the Marlboro man on the billboard. Such examples are omnipresent in this media-saturated society” (Peretti, n.d.).
Indeed, a peculiar trend exists in advertisements, one where the actual products seem to have vanished from view. These commercials, spanning entirely different industries, from car brands to snack foods, share a common thread — they all employ the same imagery. It is a world of warm embraces, soft lighting, and sentimental piano melodies softly serenading in the background. In these ads, what they are trying to sell does not even make an appearance until after they fade to black.
Advertising, since the paradigm-shift sparked by Edward Bernays, has transcended its conventional role of merely raising product awareness. It is now in the business of hyperreal world-building. Sure, we’re all familiar with its well-worn themes of consumerism, aspirational fantasies, and the production of desire. But what is truly intriguing is where advertising has ventured into — it’s crafting a realm seemingly devoid of capitalism. Here, no one seems to be toiling away, stress is an alien concept, and everyone has an abundance of leisure time to work on personal projects.
On the flip side, the “metaphysical dimensions” of marketing communication may summon the hauntological visages of human genius and utopia. An illustration resides in the late 1990s to 2000s Apple campaign, “Think Different.” In this campaign, historical figures like Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi were prominently featured, aiming to instill in consumers the notion of aligning their individual aspirations with the innovative and imaginative ethos embodied by Apple products. During the 1980s, Nike launched their iconic “Be as tough as she is” advertising campaign, drawing inspiration from the historic moment of the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon in the 1984 Games. This campaign aimed to celebrate and promote the role of women in sports.
However, the spectacular advertisements concealed a stark reality. Nike’s products were predominantly manufactured in sweatshops, where a predominantly female workforce endured grueling conditions, characterised by overwork and underpayment. This stark contradiction highlights a peculiar aspect of the mirror stage of advertising — the narrative constructed by marketers does not necessarily align with the actual practices of the company.
Today, ads peddle products they can’t genuinely sell — like the precious time you spend with your family, the freedom to engage in creative projects, or the liberation from anxiety and conformity. None of these are available for purchase, especially when we consider that the very reason people lack time for their families, feel disconnected, and find themselves stuck is precisely because there’s little freedom in most forms of work. The audience for these ads predominantly lives their lives on their employers’ terms, on their employers’ schedules. They might enjoy a week or two of liberated living per year, but these advertisements package an image of emancipation from the mundane grind of everyday existence. They present a tantalising vision of a world outside the confines of capitalism, cleverly commodifying it as its own product.
By buying Pandora bracelets, you save the world, and by taking out a loan for a Tesla, you become superior to your neighbour who still drives a petrol-fuelled Toyota. The Nike Jordans carry an unnamable magical value, imbued with athleticism, and by buying Nike, you by extension become athletic. Ideology is injected into commodities while the product’s utility in satisfying needs, afforded by its properties, becomes secondary. The car is not only its physical capabilities, but it is an environmental statement. A few years ago, the ‘black square-posting brands’ spent exorbitant amounts of capital on marketing efforts rather than alleviating racial inequities; ‘feel good’ campaigns and diversity quotas made up shallow corporate PR-stunts, while they continued to exploit so-called “third-world workers”.
Jameson, Deleuze, and Guattari all draw connections between capitalism and schizophrenia, although their conceptualizations of this relationship differ significantly. Jameson, a Marxist thinker with modernist inclinations, views their work as a facet of (schizophrenic) postmodern cultural production. Deleuze and Guattari can be categorised as postmodernist or poststructuralist theorists, as they apply a postmodern lens to their discussions of the link between schizophrenia and capitalism. While Jameson approaches postmodernism from a modernist intellectual standpoint, Deleuze and Guattari engage with it as postmodernist theorists, thus adding layers of complexity to their perspectives:
“[…] Schizophrenia is the exterior limit of capitalism itself or the conclusion of its deepest tendency, but that capitalism only functions on condition that it inhibit this tendency, or that it push back or displace this limit, by substituting for it its own immanent relative limits, which it continually reproduces on a widened scale. Hence schizophrenia is not the identity of capitalism, but on the contrary its difference, its divergence, and its death” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1983, p. 246)
As capitalism decodes and deterritorializes, it reaches toward a limit where it finds itself compelled to synthetically reestablish its grip. This necessitates the amplification of the state machinery and the resurgence of oppressive bureaucratic and symbolic regimes. In essence, the liberation promised by capitalism comes to us through the lens of achievement mythologies and success fantasies. We are sold the idea that by becoming our own self-entrepreneurial ideal selves — often through auto-exploitation or industry — we can break free from the shackles of the 9-to-5 office grind.
But there is a paradox lurking beneath this psychopolitical messaging. To escape the drudgery and alienation of capitalism, you are required to double down, if not infinitely multiply, your capitalist pursuits. You must engage in new modes of capital reproduction and accumulation. Work does not make you freer; it makes you more fatigued. It perpetuates existing power imbalances, as the surplus continues to accumulate in the hands of employers. Yet, we are, at almost every second, told the opposite.
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