September 25, 2006
Documentary: Century of the Self
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." - Adam Curtis (director)
wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self
BBC4's episode guide
google video http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=The+Century+of+the+Self&hl=en
~"Essential." ---Diederik
>related: "The first programme outlined the career of Edward Bernays, Freud's American nephew. Bernays was a press officer for Woodrow Wilson at the peace conferences in Europe following World War I, his job being to present Wilson in the most favourable light possible in order to boost his popularity with the American public. By this time the word propaganda was already gaining a sinister implication in the West due to its association with communism, and Bernays coined the term Public Relations as a positive alternative. Back in America Bernays set to work for major corporations, with one of his most spectacular successes being to help break the taboo against women smoking. He paraded a group of attractive young ladies through New York smoking and bearing the slogan 'March for Freedom'. Anyone criticising the idea of women smoking would now appear to be against freedom, and the numbers of women taking up the habit shot through the roof.
more: BBC's Century of the Self Reviewed by Paul Shepherd
[photo not with above]