Deciding by Images
What if economic growth was made of the same stuff as dreams?
Salvatore Rizzello
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” These are the words of Prospero in the first scene of act IV of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, to reassure a perplexed Ferdinand, who has just witnessed the rightful duke of Milan performing a spell to dismiss a pageant of nymphs and spirits.
Writers and poets, musicians and painters have often attempted to translate the key significance of being made of the stuff of dreams, stuff in the sense of substance or material. As Sigmund Freud explains in The Interpretation of Dreams, dreams are made of images, both visual and auditory. So what is the intrinsic significance of the fact that the world of dreams and the conscious dimension share the same make-up? Strange as it may seem, as the oneiric dimension would appear to be pertinent above all to art and psychoanalysis, an interesting response may come from the field of cognitive economics.
Aside from the rational mind and the intellect, emotions, moral implications and now the imagination have also taken their rightful place in the theory of decisions
This new branch of economics focuses on the analysis of human decision-making processes in conditions of uncertainty or limited knowledge, and takes into account not only the rational capabilities of individuals, as in the traditional theory of decision-making, but also their cognitive, psychological and cultural characteristics, and personal history. This model has been added to over time, with research examining the role of the emotions in the decision-making process, of unconscious moral implications, and lastly, of the imagination.
Basically what emerges is that in order to provide an effective explanation for decisions, including the decisions behind economic choices, it is necessary to piece together all the components of the human dimension. Human beings are no longer seen purely as detached decision-makers without souls and histories, as they are described in traditional economic theory, but as individuals capable of making mistakes, experiencing emotions, and being creative. This is all relevant when attempting to provide a more realistic explanation not only for individual behaviour and decisions, but also for the dynamics which emerge within organisations, where it is not sufficient to share strategies and aims, but also similar images. Because we think in images, which is different from putting them into words in an attempt to lend them meaning. Thinking in images is actually a sophisticated form of non-verbal communication.
This significant point of view was explicitly introduced by economic theory, in a pioneering 1956 book by Kenneth Boulding, meaningfully entitled The Image (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor). The author explores the role of mental images in various contexts, from economics to biology, from the theory of organisations to political philosophy. The subsequent scientific contributions come from an unlimited panorama which takes in philosophy of the mind, economics, psychology and neuroscience.
As a branch of economics it has now come of age, as can be seen in the recent book by Roberta Patalano La mente economica (The Economic Mind) (Laterza, 2005), which is an original collection of all this literature, and puts forward a convincing argument which provides another fundamental element in the theory of decision-making.
Aside from the rational mind and the intellect, emotions, moral implications and now the imagination have also taken their rightful place in the theory of decisions.
If we also, and primarily, think in images, and if, in view of the fact that we belong to a community, we share similar images, linked to past experiences and the context in which the decision arises, this necessarily plays an important role in the way we take our decisions, act and make history.
The words of Prospero/Shakespeare are now clear: we are made of the stuff of dreams because both in and out of our dreams we also, and primarily, think in images. This guides our choices and our actions more than we realise, and offers a new approach in the comprehension of mechanisms of social cohesion. And while everything is destined to disappear, including our own brief lives, “rounded with a sleep”, the ability to imagine is what enables us to “experience” the present.
