Samuels, R. (2010). Grand theft automodernity: Globalizing individualism and cultural nihilism from Eminem to The Matrix. New media, cultural studies,

Samuels, R. (2010). Grand theft automodernity: Globalizing individualism and cultural nihilism from Eminem to The Matrix. New media, cultural studies, and critical theory after postmodernism: Automodernity from Zizek to Lacalau. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Robert Samuels’ essay examines Grand Theft Auto (GTA) from a psychoanalytical perspective. He argues that GTA has become a pop cultural icon because it provides “a space for individual freedom and a sense of liberation from social determinism and political correctness” (p. 123). Using the theories of Freud and Lacan as his foundation, Samuels suggests that violent games like GTA allow the user to simultaneously affirm and deny violent tendencies through a cathartic release. The user ironically distances him/herself from violent acts in games through the process of displacement. Likewise, the game’s creator, Rockstar Games, demands that the audience not criticize its content and relies on Freudian understandings of humor to convey the game’s controversial message. Samuels suggests that videos games, like GTA, generate a chimerical universe for their protagonists that decreases the complexity of social relationships by relying on cultural stereotypes and clichés as their foundations.

Albeit Samuel’s essay is interesting and thought provoking it is far from the strongest on the bibliography. He continually relies on the same block quotations (literally reproducing quotes previously discussed to make another argument) and authors to prove his points. Furthermore, the work relies heavily on psychoanalytic theory which is useful in literary and rhetorical studies but not encouraged as a reliable theory in the social sciences. Therefore, Samuels’ article slightly deviates from the sociological direction I desire to take within my current research. However, Samuels briefly includes an explication of the psychological foundations of capitalism which could be useful in my discussion of social strain. He states “the very important economic task of translating the social construction of demands into the realm of individual desires is accomplished by producing an obsessional (sic) and narcissistic subject through the circulation of cultural fantasies and ironic splitting” (p. 130-131).