The Limits of Satisfaction: An Essay on the Problem of Needs and Commodities by William

Leiss; Captains of Consciousness: Advertisement and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture
by Stuart Ewen
Review by: Paul Piccone
Theory and Society, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Summer, 1977), p. 296
Published by: Springer
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296
which suggest that the differences may
not be absolute and qualitative. Without
asserting categorically that there is no
qualitative difference, Griffin reviews re-
cent research that explores whether homo
sapiens is constituted by language and
whether animals are aware of what they
are doing. Griffin suggests avenues of re-
search and experimentation, especially
participatory investigation of animal com-
munication, that would help answer these
questions.
The book is useful as a brief survey of the
field and evaluation of the current (post-
Washoe) implications of ethology for the
study of human communication, and as a
counter to the logocentrism that animates
recent sociological theory. However, it
suffers (1) from its brevity and (2) from a
naturalistic disregard of vital questions
concerning the philosophical presuppo-
sitions of the study of language and con-
sciousness.
From Paul PICCONE
William Leiss, The Limits of Satisfaction:
An Essay on the Problem of Needs and
Commodities. University of Toronto
Press, 1976.
In a brilliantly written short monograph,
Leiss critically examines the bogus issue
of false vs. true needs and shows that
Critical Theory, Western Marxism and
most radical sociology have been mis-
guided in posing the question in this fash-
ion. Taking "alienation" several steps be-
yond ordinary accounts, Leiss shows that
reification consists in the fragmentation
of needs which prevents people from con-
necting needs with satisfaction, thus pre-
venting a rational evaluation of commo-
dities offered and any type of satisfaction
of the fragmented needs. It is clearly
written, well documented, brilliantly ar-
gued. A refreshing break from vacuous
sociologese.
This content downloaded from 188.72.127.168 on Fri, 20 Jun 2014 22:08:49 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness:
Advertisement and the Social Roots of
the Consumer Culture. McGraw Hill (New
York), 1976.
This history of advertisement shows how
the advertising industry eased the transi-
tion from an entrepreneurial capitalism to
a post-New Deal, heavy State Interven-
tionist system. Ewen documents the
shaping of present consumer conscious-
ness and the multiplicity of institutional
rearrangements that it made possible.
This book is a paradigm of social history:
it unsnarls a tangle of crucial relations,
explaining several hitherto very problema-
tic aspects related to class consciousness,
political indifference, and bureaucratic
control.
From William CASPARY
John Bowlby, Attachment and Loss, 2
Vols, Attachment, 1969; Separation,
1973; (third volume forthcoming). Basic
Books (New York).
A monumental attempt to reconceptual-
ize the nature of instinct in humans and
to apply this perspective to the phenome-
non of attachment. This work has been
helpful to me in my efforts to understand
theories of motivation, and theories of
the ontogeny and phylogeny of social be-
havior. (Bowlby is not of the conservative
"socio-biology" school. His original train-
ing was in psychoanalysis).
Margaret Mahler. The Psychological Birth
of the Human Infant. Basic Books (New
York), 1975.
Mahler presents the results of intensive
observation on those obscure processes
by which a biological organism becomes a
social being during the first two years of
human life. The orientation is psychoana-
lytic and many of the "observations" are
colored by theoretical language and ex-
pectations.