The Century of the Self

Synopsis

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.

First Air Date: 2002-03-17

Last Air Date: 2002-04-07

Number of Seasons: 1

Number of Episodes: 4

Created By: Adam Curtis

Networks: BBC Two

View Technical Specifications on IMDb

Top Cast

Adam Curtis as Narrator
Anne Bernays as Self
Martin Bergmann as Self
Robert Reich as Self
Edward L. Bernays as Self (archive footage)
Sigmund Freud as Self (archive footage)
Anna Freud as Self (archive footage)
Wilhelm Reich as Self (archive footage)
Tony Blair as Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher as Self (archive footage)

Seasons

Miniseries (2002)

No overview available for this season.

Episodes:

Ep. 1: Happiness Machines (2002-03-17)

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.
Ep. 2: The Engineering of Consent (2002-03-24)

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.
Ep. 3: There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads. He Must Be Destroyed (2002-03-31)

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.
Ep. 4: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering (2002-04-07)

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.