Tim Kasser

A study of how materialism and consumerism undermine our quality of life. In The High Price of Materialism, Tim Kasser offers a scientific explanation of how our contemporary culture of consumerism and materialism affects our everyday happiness and psychological health. Other writers have shown that once we have sufficient food, shelter, and clothing, further material gains do little to improve our well-being. Kasser goes beyond these findings to investigate how people's materialistic desires relate to their well-being. He shows that people whose values center on the accumulation of wealth or material possessions face a greater risk of unhappiness, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and problems with intimacy--regardless of age, income, or culture. Drawing on a decade's worth of empirical data, Kasser examines what happens when we organize our lives around materialistic pursuits. He looks at the effects on our internal experience and interpersonal relationships, as well as on our communities and the world at large. He shows that materialistic values actually undermine our well-being, as they perpetuate feelings of insecurity, weaken the ties that bind us, and make us feel less free. Kasser not only defines the problem but proposes ways we can change ourselves, our families, and society to become less materialistic.

The High Price of Materialism

Allen D. Kanner

This book provides an in-depth analysis of consumerism that draws from a wide range of theoretical, clinical and methodological approaches. Contributors demonstrate that consumerism and the culture that surrounds it exert profound and often undesirable effects on both people's individual lives and on society as a whole. Far from being distant influences, advertising, consumption, materialism and the capitalistic economic system affect personal, social and ecological well-being on many levels. Contributors also provide a variety of potential interventions for counteracting the negative influence of consumerism.

The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World

Psychology and Consumer Culture

A study of how materialism and consumerism undermine our quality of life.

Larry Gonick

An acerbic graphic takedown of capitalism. In Hyper-Capitalism, cartoonist Larry Gonick and psychologist Tim Kasser offer a vivid and an accessible new way to understand how global, privatising, market-worshipping hyper-capitalism is threatening human wellbeing, social justice, and the planet. Drawing from contemporary research, they describe and illustrate concepts (such as corporate power, free trade, privatisation, and deregulation) that are critical for understanding the world we live in, and movements (such as voluntary simplicity, sharing, alternatives to GDP, and protests) that have developed in response to the system. Gonick and Kasser’s pointed and profound cartoon narratives provide a deep exploration of the global economy and the movements seeking to change it, all rendered in clear, graphic — and sometimes hilarious — terms. In the process, they point the way to a healthier future for all of us.

the modern economy, its values, and how to change them

Hyper-Capitalism

Many have speculated about the meaning of John Lennon's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Psychologist Tim Kasser applies innovative methods to the song's lyrics and music, weaving his findings together with the musician's past to provide an integrative perspective on the place of Lucy in Lennon's life.

Lucy in the Mind of Lennon

Tom Crompton

In addressing environmental challenges like climate change, governments, charities and business tend to focus either on changing policy or business practice, or on urging individuals to adopt different behaviour. The role of human identity is largely absent from the debate. And yet, our identities - who we see ourselves as being - have a profound impact in shaping the responses we make to environmental challenges. This provocative book will rattle the cages of many environmentalists, 'green-minded' business-people and policy makers. In it, Crompton and Kasser suggest that many current approaches to addressing problems like climate change may actually inadvertently serve to reinforce those aspects of identity that drive us towards unsustainable behaviour in first place. They suggest that it will only be by re-shaping political debate and social institutions in order to promote more helpful aspects of identity that we can have any hope of meeting environmental challenges. The book closes by highlighting the opportunities that this perspective presents for building new alliances between people working not just on environmental issues, but also on a range of social and developmental concerns: Many of those aspects of human identity that frustrate progress on the environmental agenda also frustrate progress on meeting other challenges.

Tim Kasser

About

Books

Join the club