Session 3: The Birdseye View: Theoretical and Technical Perspectives
This session begins with the idea that compulsive shopping is but one form of a larger constellation of behaviors that have in common an intense desire to acquire, possess, or hoard objects. We’ll touch on some of these related behaviors and explore what often leads counselors and therapists to underinquire about someone’s shopping and buying behavior. We’ll explore two very different approaches to working with overshopping clients and discuss how to help clients feel motivated to do the serious work that lies ahead.
Readings (click on title to access):
a. “Shopping for an Addiction” by Mary Harris in Serious Shopping: Essays in Psychotherapy and Consumerism, edited by Adrienne Baker, Free Association Books, 2000, p. 199-220
b. “The Use of Money as an Action Symptom” by David Krueger in I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self, edited by April Lane Benson, Aronson, 2000, p. 288-310.
c. “The Psychodynamics of the Compulsive Female Shopper” by Lauren Lawrence in The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1990, Volume 3, No. 1, p. 67-70.
d. Audio File
:http://www.shopaholicnomore.com/media/audio/Audio_3.mp3]