Wakefield further noted that Ballard "has been obsessed by the effects of consumerism, money and globalisation." Whether he uses post-holocaust or electronic media landscapes, what characterizes the author's surreal fusion of environment and the unconscious is what Ballard described in an essay for
New Worlds as "its redemptive and therapeutic power. To move through these landscapes is a journey of return to one's innermost being."
Ballard's idea is echoed by Joseph Lanz, who in Re/Search: J. G. Ballard also pointed out the neurotic nature of Ballard's characters. Ballard's brand of science fiction, Lanz wrote, "replaces the intergalactic journey with excursions into the convoluted psyche. In Ballard's realm, neurosis is an ultracivilized version of primitive ritual where object and subject meld into an alchemical union. The outside world is just a projection of private fetishes." Pringle claimed that Ballard's characters "are driven by obsessions" and often choose "to strand themselves in some bizarre terrain which reflects their states of mind." Ballard addressed this question in an interview with Douglas Reed for Books and Bookmen: "My psychological landscapes are the sort that might be perceived by people during major mental crises--not literally, of course, but they represent similar disturbed states of mind." Speaking with Thomas Frick for Paris Review, Ballard further explained his intentions: "I quite consciously rely on my obsessions in all my work.
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