Today we are encouraged to view our lives as being full of choice. Like
products on a supermarket shelf, our identities seem to be there for the
choosing. But paradoxically this freedom can create anxiety, and
feelings of guilt and inadequacy. In The Tyranny of Choice, acclaimed
philosopher and sociologist Renata Salecl explores how late capitalism's
shrill exhortations to 'be yourself' are leading to ever-greater
disquiet - and how its insistence on choice being a purely individual
matter can prevent social change.
Drawing on diverse examples from popular culture - spanning dating sites
and self-help books, to our obsession with celebrities' lifestyles - and
fusing sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy, Salecl shows that
choice is rarely based on a simple rational decision with a predictable
outcome.