RESISTANCE CINEMA presents “THE CENTURY OF THE SELF” Episode I. Produced by Adam Curtis for the British Broadcasting Company. 2002, 60 minutes
WHEN: Sunday June 17th, 2007, 1:15pm
WHERE: Community Church of NYC, Gallery Room 28 East 35th st.@ park ave.
ADMISSION: Free, donations appreciated
Once again the BBC’s Adam Curtis brings us a fascinating documentary. In this award winning four part series the producer of “The Power Of Nightmares” turns his attention to the 20th century and the evolution of the idea of self from the theoretical breakthroughs of Sigmund Freud to the world of advertising and ultimately political propaganda.
To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?
By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal.
This first episode is the key 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.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticizing the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world.
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