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Management discourses have, since their origins in the works of Taylor and Weber, approached the subject as a resource to be deployed, measured and controlled. Late modernity, however, has spawned a rather different modality of the subject, one that is emotional, meaning-seeking and identity-seeking. This conceptualization derives from an increasing emphasis on consumerism, choice, customer service and the shift from manufacturing to a service economy in which emotion becomes a fundamental aspect of the labour process. In consumerist society, every choice is modelled on consumer choices, and every choice, no matter how trivial, becomes an existential choice – i.e. an identity – and self-defining choice. The author proposes that choice is emerging as the dominant illusion for this subject, an illusion for the sake of which he/she is quite willing to endure high levels of insecurity and frustration; the article concludes with the suggestion that a new psycho-social defence, that of specialness, is overtaking more traditional defences. While earlier defences, rooted in Oedipal dynamics, sacrificed freedom in the interest of security and sought solace in bureaucratic routine, the new defensive configuration accepts uncertainty and unpredictability but envisages an imaginary cloak that defends the subject from the slings and arrows of fortune.