This paper discusses the relationship between the psyche and the world in four epistemological versions, having as their basic reference a case of compulsion to buy. The first version takes the psyche at an individual level, privileging the notions of conflict, defense, and symptomatic solution. The second considers the sociocultural stressors of the culture of narcissism and its reflections on the oedipal family. The third looks at the psyche in its symbolic dimension, considering consumer society from this point of view. Finally, the fourth approaches the psyche as the unconscious structure of a period. In this sense, postmodernism and its specific psychopathology are related to a historically new symbolic form. Each version produces a different interpretation of the clinical case.