‘Mr. MASS motivations himself’: explaining Dr. Ernest Dichter

• During the 1950s and into the 1960s no marketing consultant was better known than Dr. Ernest Dichter (1907–1993). Business leaders, advertising professionals, journalists, and even academics attributed to Dichter near‐magical powers to penetrate to the very heart of consumer motivations with his unique psychoanalytic version of ‘Motivation Research’. Social critics saw him as a menace to free societies.
• Much of what he claimed, however, was inaccurate and needs to be critically checked against other sources, as will be done here, where archival and other primary sources are evaluated to explore Dichter's career and his legacy.
• Dichter exploited the esteem of psychoanalysis yet was not particularly well versed in it himself. He was hardly the ‘father’ of Motivation Research (MR) but rather took from its originators without acknowledgement. His work represented only part of MR.
• On the positive side, Dichter's creative and intuitive approach enabled him to portray consumer behavior in ways that celebrated mass affluence, enriched popular mythology, and still influences advertising creatives.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.