The Century of the Self(2002)

Name: The Century of the Self
Genre: Documentary, War & Politics
Released: 2002-03-17
Rating: 4.2

March 17, 20021 Season · 4 Episodes

Ended

Documentary

War & Politics

4.2from 120 users

Overview

The legacy of famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud informs the lives of people throughout the world even to this day, though it's a phenomenon to which most are unaware. The film is an exhaustive examination of his theories on human desire, and how they're applied to platforms such as advertising, consumerism and politics.

“A secret history of the 20th century.”

Created by Adam Curtis

Network BBC Two

Seasons

Miniseries

4 Episodes

2002

E01

Happiness Machines

3/17/2002·58m

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

E02

The Engineering of Consent

3/24/2002·58m

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

E03

There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads. He Must Be Destroyed

3/31/2002·58m

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against him and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to express itself.

E04

Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

4/7/2002·58m

How both the Labour Party in Britain and the Democrats in America have sought to gain power through use of the focus group, invented by psychoanalysts to fulfil desires of the inner self.