Corporatizing the Unconscious: Memes, Neuromarketing and Christopher Nolan's Inception
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2013
Publication Title
2013 Media in Transition 8 Conference at MIT
Abstract
This essay argues that Christopher Nolan's film Inception (2010) exemplifies social concerns and anxieties concerning the increasing role of neuroscience and neuromarketing in affecting the socially perceived "private" realm of human consciousness. Within western cultures, liberal concepts of free will and personal responsibility are predicated on the assumption of a liberated, individual mind. Inception, however, shows us how a team of skilled specialists infiltrate the unconscious mind of Fischer, the son of a dying corporate competitor, to implant the idea of disintegrating his father's company. In effect, the team cultivates Fischer's consciousness to perform labor that enables its client to enlarge his business empire. The film's conception of well-conceived ideas or memes as viral and transferable between minds corresponds to much of the applied research conducted in neuromarketing. A central social concern about neuromarketing is that it seeks to bypass a person's rational thought process to corporatize his or her unconscious behavior.
Recommended Citation
Pierson, David P., "Corporatizing the Unconscious: Memes, Neuromarketing and Christopher Nolan's Inception" (2013). Faculty and Staff Scholarship. 158.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/usm-faculty-and-staff-scholarship/158
