1. The standard English translation of Überdeterminierung, the word Freud, Sigmund uses to describe the effect of the dreamwork processes known as condensation (Verdichtung) and displacement (Verschiebung) whereby either a number of different dream-thoughts are compressed beneath a single image or the affect of one particularly strong dream-thought is transferred onto another comparatively innocuous image. The net result is a multilayered image that cannot be taken at face value and whose surface is only a partial and at best unreliable indicator of what lies beneath. 2. French Marxist philosopher Althusser, Louis adapted this term (it is rendered in French as surdétermination) to articulate his thesis that all social practice is multiply determined, or has more than one cause, hence its contradictory nature and appearance. A classic example of what Althusser has in mind can be seen in the debate concerning climate change---it is the lavish western lifestyle that is allegedly the cause of the present crisis, yet that is the one thing we are apparently unwilling to give up in order to resolve the crisis. But because of our awareness of the crisis and its inherently contradictory nature we have got used to the perfectly Althusserian idea that every single aspect of our daily life, from the way we dispose of our garbage to the products we buy, is at once an effect of a larger process we loosely refer to as globalization and a contribution to a larger process we refer to as, again very loosely, climate change. Our decision to buy Fairtrade or organic products is in this sense overdetermined because it reflects both personal desire and an awareness of the economic system as a whole. The crucial implication here is that a change at one level---our consciousness of the seriousness of the threat climate change poses to the future of the planet---does not automatically translate into action on the other level. We have not given up our consumerist lifestyle; we have merely tried to alter its modality, as though to say we can save the planet from the effects of consumption by shopping differently.