The Century of the Self

Caught this fantastic documentary at Cinema Village in NY. In short, it traces the tremendous influence of Freudian ideas and the family Freud - Siggie, Anna, and nephew Edward Bernays - on the development contemporary capitalist societies.

Using chilling footage and lucid voice over, it traces the methods by which Freud's discoveries about the sub/unconscious mind were systematically implemented by corporate America in the 1920's and later the U.S. government to increase their wealth/power while at the same time giving people the impression of greater personal freedom. It was Bernays who founded the 1st public relations firm and coined the term "engineering consent".

Its thesis spans everything from the invention of public relations, modern advertising techniques, Nazi Germany, CIA brainwashing, the self-help movement, consumer culture and current U.S./British electoral politics. All of which have direct antecedents in the ideas of Freud.

Apparently, due to lack of copyright clearances, it is not available on DVD or tape. But hopefully it will make the art house circuit. His follow-up, The Power of Nightmares, is supposedly even better. It deals with 9-11.

More comprehensive and persuasive than "The Corporation" and more objective and grounded that Michael Moore's work, "Century of the Self" is essential viewing.

If you think corporate and government collusion in controlling the masses is tin hat stuff, well, start measuring your head...

Learn how a few people, using Sigmund Freud's ideas, manufactured the modern consumerist thinking of today. Honest BBC Worldwide documentary that shows how the likes of Eddie Bernays managed to popularize the idea that masses of people are led and can be controlled through their basic needs alone, the reason why all the crap around is crap. And it's not a conspiracy theory, not science fiction, but history.

The first episode alone makes it completely worth watching, but the other three are good, too. See how to different philosophies of psychology battle to gain control over how we treat human beings, both being right and wrong at the same time. Learn how big business and politicians are pulling just a few important strings and huge number of people just jump like marionettes. And all of it while convinced it is done for democracy and our individual self's sake.

Sometimes it gets a little repetitive and biased. I think it could have been a really good two hour and a half movie, with no episodes, but it's great as it is too and I really recommend watching it.

This documentary is about the history of psychology but also about how it affects the average person. It covers early attempts to understand and shape human behaviour which were applied in the context of government and advertising. Really fascinating.

The Century of the Self is one of the best documentaries i've ever seen. Using archive footage Adam Curtis told the story of how today's consumer society came into existence. Also it goes to show how we, the today's consumers, make our choices.

It all began by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, who did consulting in corporate marketing. Using Freud's ideas Bernays created demand for products people didn't consciously need.

As the twentieth century progressed, these ideas grew beyond marketing and influenced contemporary politics. They remained between two poles, though. One claimed that people can't and shouldn't make their choices and needed guidance from those in the know. The other stated how we should be liberated by peeling layer after layer of consciousness until we find what we really want.

Of course, the truth was probably somewhere in between, but this hadn't prevented those in power from doing what they want. The joke is that eventually even the politicians started fulfilling the needs and wants of the voters instead steering them.

You might as well check Adam Curtis blog on BBC website.

It cannot have been easy to make a documentary series about the history of advertising and consumer society, about ethics (and their absence), about notions of the self and its manipulation in the interests of power and profit. In "Century of the Self" Adam Curtis lays bare the mechanisms of consumerist brainwashing. He does so in an entertaining and engaging manner, using archival footage, amateur videos and interviews of great historical and ideological value. His voice-over is sometimes humorous but the script never loses touch with the seriousness of the topic. This series is so important and watchable that I expose my students to a few of its most crucial extracts. At the best of times, the more thoughtful students seem anyhow to wonder what weird kind of world they have been dumped into. After seeing this film most of them start asking essential questions about ethics, propaganda, manipulation, individual liberty, etc. Essential viewing, I think, for anyone endowed with a brain, a critical spirit and a modicum of self-respect.