Basic trope: A character (usually a woman) goes shopping to improve their mood.
- Straight: After breaking up with Bob, Alice goes to the mall to make herself feel better.
- Exaggerated: Alice's retail therapy involves buying a new mansion.
- Downplayed: Alice gets mildly annoyed at her boyfriend Bob, so she buys herself some ice cream to make up for the small amount of frustration she's feeling.
- Justified: Spending money and getting new things causes the brain to release pleasure hormones such as endorphins and dopamine, which can distract one from unpleasant happenings in one's life.
- Inverted: Alice tries to make herself feel better by going to a pawn shop and selling some of her old clothes.
- Subverted: After breaking up with Bob, Alice goes to the mall... because that's where she works, not to go shopping.
- Double Subverted: She goes shopping after her shift ends.
- Parodied: Alice is so shallow and vain that buying a new outfit instantly makes her forget that her parents were just murdered.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice goes to the mall... because that's where she works, not to go shopping. She goes shopping after her shift ends... but it's only to buy groceries. Then she goes to a luxury bag store...
- Averted:
- Alice goes shopping just for the sake of shopping, not because she's sad.
- Alice is sad, but uses methods other than retail therapy to make herself feel better.
- Enforced: Retail therapy works as a way to not only break up Alice and Bob for the sake of the plot, but also as an excuse to insert loads of executive-mandated Product Placement during the ensuing Shopping Montage.
- Lampshaded: "After buying all these new clothes, I feel so much better that I don't even care about how this is affecting my credit score!"
- Invoked: Alice doesn't think of doing retail therapy until Carol suggests going shopping.
- Exploited: Carol really wants to go shopping with Alice (who's wealthy enough to buy her anything she wants), so she manipulates her and Bob into breaking up so Alice will be more likely to want to go to the mall afterwards.
- Defied: Alice takes one look at her bank account and sees that she can't afford to go on a shopping spree right now, so she decides to use less expensive ways to improve her mood.
- Discussed: "It sounds silly, but I always feel better after a trip to the mall!"
- Conversed: "Why do women on TV treat the mall as a therapist?" "Yeah, they probably won't be feeling better anymore when they look at their credit card statement."
- Deconstructed: Spending so much money causes Alice to become a Ms. Red Ink, falling into deep debt that only makes her mental health issues worsen, leading to a vicious cycle.
Back to Retail Therapy
