![]() ![]() In the 1970s and 1980s a body of literature appeared discussing and documenting a modal shift in the way that Americans conceive of and express themselves. I begin with the shift in self-definitions and then consider evidence for the commodification of self. Both of these meanings of self-commodification concern the terms in which we define ourselves and our well-being, and each has been facilitated by the loosening of self-definitions from specific social roles and obligations. This adaptation is well illustrated by the recent practice of “personal branding,” a strategy of cultivating a name and image of ourselves that we manipulate for economic gain. A second meaning of self-commodification involves the reorganization of our personal lives and relationships on the model of market relations. ![]() We know who we are and we judge the quality of our inner experience through identification with the things we buy. In this sense, self-definition depends on the appropriation of the traits of commodities. A first is that self-understanding is mediated by the consumption of goods and images. If a commodity is a product, something that can be bought and sold, then in what sense can the self be commodified? Without any claim to being exhaustive, I want to discuss two possible meanings. The commodification of self would seem to be a misnomer.
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