Money and the meaning of life: The fantasy of instant wealth

Abstract: Is the meaning of life to get rich quick? That would certainly explain the way many people have lived under the spell of a constitutive fantasy: the fantasy of instant wealth. Drawing on Lacan’s Discourse of the Capitalist, the article explores the fantasy of instant wealth and its relationship to addiction, especially addiction to shopping. The article concludes with a meditation on how the fantasy of instant wealth supplants and in some ways contradicts another fantasy: the fantasy of labour.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Money and the meaning of life: The fantasy of instant wealth ; volume:29 ; number:4 ; year:2019 ; pages:470-478 ; extent:9 ; Human affairs ; 29, Heft 4 (2019), 470-478 (gesamt 9)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Wendling, Amy E.

Further information

• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2019-0042
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022111813480231144871
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:34 AM CEST