The endless search for enough. The seeking of outside solutions to fix an inside problem. Capitalism created Consumerism, which somehow then created Moreism.

Moreism is ‘seeking an outside solution to fix an inside problem.’ ‘Moreism’ is an unfulfilled empty feeling. Moreism is all about us trying to make ourselves feel complete, when deep down we feel that something’s missing. Moreism is a symptom of an interior negative empty self-perception. It’s about us trying to make ourselves feel ‘comfortable’ when we feel uncomfortable inside.

The psychologist Oliver James has coined the phrase ‘affluenza’ to describe the ways we’re conditioned, by what he calls ‘selfish capitalism’, to focus on the satisfaction of external ‘needs’. In his view, being encouraged to think we need to have a ‘better’ car, the latest gadgets, fashionable clothes or more ‘desirable’ accessories to ‘improve’ our lives is like a sickness. Its effect is ever increasing levels of unhappiness.

In the past I used to try to make myself feel better with anything from sweets, chocolate and food to a new pair of shoes, clothes, endless things, I was looking for something outside myself in an attempt to resolve issues going on inside. The things I tried to do this with were all immediately satisfying in one way or other, but totally short-term. Essentially, I was caught up in looking for an ‘outside solution to an inside problem’.

When I was buying things I always felt good but often on the way home the uneasy feelings started again. I identify Moreism as being at the root of shopping addiction. Moreism is tied into a mindset that’s been described as the need for ‘the external validation of self’. This way of thinking is underpinned by the belief that who or what we are, is based on what we’ve got and how we look.

Until the situation inside is transformed, from feeling that something is lacking to a feeling that we are whole and complete as we are, external fixes to internal issues are only ever going to be temporary. Unless the internal issue is sorted out, all the external things we acquire merely create the temporary illusion of being complete. Discomfort will always creep back. Moreism.