The postmodern state and collective individualism: A comparative look at Israeli society and western consumer culture

The paradigmatic Western social change from collectivism to individualism is explored in this paper through the discourse of bodily signification in Israeli society. Describing how the concepts of the "collective body" and the "individual body" can be theorized and practiced, the study reconstructs the gradual replacement of the former by the latter in Israeli society as a historical process, which was disrupted by the Gulf War. Israeli society is thus used as a case study illustrating a broader perspective on Western society and questioning the discourse of "individualism" in the postmodern.