Cultural Standardization: The Illusion of Freedom
Until the 1970s, socially disadvantaged groups such as women, LGBT individuals, Black people, and people with disabilities achieved significant progress through collective action, especially from the 1960s onwards. These struggles often succeeded not only through internal solidarity but also through alliances with politicians, professionals, and other members of the elite.
From the 1980s onward, however, with the rise of neoliberal policies, this arrangement changed. Privatization, market-driven reforms, and the emphasis on the “individual” began to dominate. Collective affiliations such as unions or social movements became less central, and people increasingly experienced a sense of belonging or identity without institutional memberships. Paradoxically, however, this process of individualization undermined people’s ability to construct their own authentic value frameworks and weakened the sense of uniqueness it promised.
The Illusion of Freedom in Capitalist Culture
Capitalist consumer culture—or what might also be called a form of biopolitical order—presents itself as a system of freedom. It allows individuals to feel autonomous while simultaneously channeling them into highly standardized patterns. At its core, this order revolves around sex and money.
Sexuality is framed as a natural expression of personal growth and a space of liberation, while consumption is portrayed as the rational exploration of one’s chosen identity and the expression of one’s “inner self.” The cultural message is clear: “You are a material girl, you are a trendsetter, you are a consumer.” Thus, identity becomes increasingly tied to sexuality and consumption.
As Bill Jordan has observed, sex and money have come to function as sacred instruments in the rituals of modern individualism. Just as bread and wine acquire sacred meaning in the Christian Eucharist, sex and money are transformed into sacred symbols in contemporary cultural life.
Sex, Money, and Biopower
The dominant cultural motto of our age can be summed up as: “You can buy whatever you want, and you can sleep with whomever you want.” This narrative sustains the constant reproduction of desire and consumption. Objects must be purchased and owned so that more can be bought, while bodies, in contrast, are expected to be shared. Sexual relations are framed as natural and instinctive, sustaining a pleasure-centered lifestyle.
As Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower suggests, capitalist societies regulate not only production but also bodies, desires, and sexuality. Sex is no longer only about individual pleasure; it becomes a social mechanism shaped by public health, education, population policies, and advertising. The institutionalization of the sex industry—from street prostitution to the global pornography industry—illustrates how capitalism has packaged and commodified sexuality on an ever-larger scale.
Materialism, Objectification, and Psychological Well-Being
Empirical research demonstrates the psychological costs of this cultural standardization. A meta-analysis of 259 independent samples found that materialistic values are associated with lower subjective well-being, more negative self-evaluations, greater risky consumption, and compulsive buying. These effects appear to be stronger in adults compared to adolescents and more pronounced among women, with unmet needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness identified as the key mediators.
Objectification theory further shows that exposure to sexualized cultural content fosters self-objectification, which is in turn linked to performance anxiety and difficulties in emotional regulation. Compulsive buying has also been consistently linked to stress, anxiety, depression, and lower life satisfaction.
Finally, research on acculturation stress demonstrates that among adolescents and young adults, cultural standardization processes are moderately associated with depression, anxiety, and reduced well-being. However, social support has a protective function, and individuals with high bicultural identity integration (BII) show stronger psychological adjustment.
The Standardization of Emotions
As a result, individuals increasingly drift away from their authentic selves, focusing instead on external displays and identity markers that do not reflect their deeper needs. Even basic emotional experiences today are lived through culturally standardized scripts. For example, someone experiencing heartbreak is expected to go shopping or organize a “girls’ night.” In the case of ADHD, a wide range of scientifically unproven products are marketed as solutions. Psychological problems themselves are often framed as trendy identity markers—something that anyone could, but is almost expected to, have. This dynamic leads to difficulties in internalizing experiences, fuels continuous consumption, and weakens people’s ability to manage everyday stress.
Need for Values-Based Approaches
The supposed freedom of capitalist consumer culture rests on a deep-seated standardization. Sex and money have become the sacred instruments of modern individualism, while consumption has been reframed as the ultimate expression of identity. Yet this order distances individuals from their authentic selves, undermines psychological needs, and reduces well-being.
In this context, values-based psychological interventions offer more holistic and sustainable solutions to everyday challenges, helping individuals counteract the homogenizing pressures of cultural standardization.
References
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Jordan, B. (1992). Sex, money and power: The transformation of collective life. Cambridge: Polity Press.
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Müller, A., Laskowski, N. M., Thomas, T. A., Antons, S., Tahmassebi, N., Steins-Loeber, S., Brand, M., & Georgiadou, E. (2023). Update on treatment studies for compulsive buying-shopping disorder: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 10562810. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.10562810
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