MODULE 2 : MATERIAL / ECONOMIC SELF

Objectives:
After this lesson students will be able to :
1. to explain the association of self and possessions ;
2. to identify the role of the consumer culture to self and identity:
3. to appraise one’s self based on the description of material self.
Introduction
• Our life is now full of options.
• And our world, real or digital, is filled with products, all vying for our attention and
money through sales, promotions and product advertisements.
• Advertisements appeal to our desire of feeling better or looking good – our wants.
WANTS POSSESSIONS ------- SELF
SELF IDENTITY
• Belk (1988):
– “We regard our possessions as parts of ourselves. We are what we have and
possess.”
The Lens of the Material Self
Learning Activity
• ACTIVITY – Debit Card Challenge
A very wealthy person gave you a debit card and told you to use it as much as you want to make
yourself happy. What are you going to do with it? Make a list of what you want to have. Write as
many as you want (please make use of the next 30 minutes to make your list).
• James (1890) – the material self is primarily about our bodies, clothes, immediate
family, and home
SELF
Body
Clothes

Immediate family
Home
We are deeply affected by these (body, clothes, immediate family, and home) because we have
put so much investment of our self to them.

Body

1. Innermost part
- we are directly attached to it
2. Intentional investing
- We make sure the body functions well and good
3. Valuable

CLOTHES

1. Essential part of material self (James, 1890)

2. Form of self expression (Watson, 2014)
“any time we bring an object into the surface of our body, we invest that object into the
consciousness of our personal existence takings in its contours to be our own and making it part
of the self”
- Herman Lotze, Microcosmus

Immediate Family

1. Parents and siblings

- What they do and become affect us.
2. Nearest replica of our self
- We place huge investment in our immediate family

Home

1. Earliest nest of selfhood

2. Holds records and markings of our experiences
3. An extension of self where we can directly connect to.

Investment of self to things = attachment to things

Possessions = part or extension of the self

James (1890)
“A man’s self is the sum total of all what he CAN call his”.
 WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE
• Belk (1988):
– “We regard our possessions as parts of ourselves. We are what we have and
possess.”