The Century of the Self
The Century of the Self is a four-part video series from BBC-2 about propaganda, public relations, and their effects on society.
"A new theory of human nature was put forward by Sigmund Freud. He had discovered, he said, primitive sexual and aggressive forces hidden deep inside the minds of all human beings -- forces which, if not controlled, led individuals and societies to chaos and destruction. This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.
"At the heart of the story is not just Sigmund Freud, but other members of the Freud family...Freud's American nephew, Edward Bernays,...was the first person to take Freud's ideas about human beings and use them to manipulate the masses...He showed American corporations...how to make people want things they didn't need by linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
"Out of this would come a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying people's inner selfish desires, it was possible to make them happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all consuming Self which has come to dominate our world today."
Printer-friendly version