“Billions in Debt and Still Surviving”: Curing the Female Shopper in Confessions of a Shopaholic

This paper analyses P.J. Hogan’s Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) in three sections. In the first section, it studies how the film maps shopping as an illness that needs to be cured onto the body of its female heroine. It does so, as is argued here, by portraying her as a patient suffering from Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD). In the second part, it traces how Confessions necessitates the cure of the female shopper, given its background of the Great Recession and how this holds generic significance for the romantic comedy. The paper then concludes by charting the heroine’s cure in group therapy as predicated upon the principle of the Foucauldian confession and how this then resolves the narrative as, what Diane Negra calls, one of “adjusted ambitions.”

Treatment of compulsive buying disorder: comparing the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy with person-centred experiential counselling

Background: Outcome studies of the treatment of compulsive buying disorder (CBD) have rarely compared the effectiveness of differing active treatments. Aims: This study sought to compare the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and person-centred experiential therapy (PCE) in a cross-over design. Method: This was an ABC single case experimental design with extended follow-up with a female patient meeting diagnostic criteria for CBD. Ideographic CBD outcomes were intensively measured over a continuous 350-day time series. Following a 1-month baseline assessment phase (A; 28 days; three sessions), CBT was delivered via 13 out-patient sessions (B: 160 days) and then PCE was delivered via six out-patient sessions (C: 63 days). There was a 99-day follow-up period. Results: Frequency and duration of compulsive buying episodes decreased during active treatment. CBT and PCE were both highly effective compared with baseline for reducing shopping obsessions, excitement about shopping, compulsion to shop and improving self-esteem. When the PCE and CBT treatment phases were compared against each other, few differences were apparent in terms of outcome. There was no evidence of any relapse over the follow-up period. A reliable and clinically significant change on the primary nomothetic measure (i.e. Compulsive Buying Scale) was retained over time. Conclusions: The study suggests that both CBT and PCE can be effective for CBD. Methodological limitations and suggestions for future CBD outcome research are discussed.

Integrative Approach to Behavioral Addictions: Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD)

In recent years, awareness and concern has grown within the psychological and medical communities regarding “behavioral addictions”: these are defined as the compulsive performance of otherwise normal everyday activities such as sex, gambling, use of the Internet and online video games, and shopping. This chapter examines 3 such addictive disorders: gambling disorder, compulsive buying disorder (CBD), and Internet gaming disorder (IGD), exploring their definitions, prevalence, diagnoses, consequences, and treatment. All 3 disorders share similar neurobiological mechanisms, acting on the pleasure centers of the brain and having potentially severe social, mental, and psychological repercussions, including loss of interest in life and withdrawal symptoms as intense as those felt by substance abusers when quitting drugs. Certain pharmaceuticals, CBT, and treatment principles similar to those followed by substance abusers, as well as various non-traditional modalities such as acupuncture and yoga, all have shown promise in treating these disorders.

CAPITALISM, CONSUMERISM AND POPULAR CULTURE

A product’s utility has evolved over time. In today’s world, the commodities possess the power to define us. Every product that we own today, through its branding, reflects our social status, values and vice versa. It is difficult to refute the negative influence of capitalism that we witness in form of obsession with possession. The aim of the paper is to study the extent to which the products of the modern society like the protagonists in the following two movies suffer; whether it is possible to imagine an end of consumerism and not the world or has it become an inherent part of the late capitalist world in which there is no completeness but the perennial emergence of substitutes (objects). This paper studies the aforementioned issues through the movies “Fight Club” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic”. The first section of the paper uses the case of soap industry as the foundation and analyses “Fight Club”. The second section examines the role of credit card companies in compulsive buying disorder through “Confessions of a Shopaholic”. Despite the similarity between the two movies on the grounds of the modern world “suffering”, the paper highlights the difference in their treatment of the main theme of consumerism and links it to the gender politics. The final section draws a comparison between the endings of the two movies and investigates the premise of disorder in “Fight Club” and its existential threat to capitalism.