The Century of the Self

2002 • 1 Season • 8.5 Ended

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.

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Trailers & Videos 1

Century of the Self (Trailer) - Adam Curtis (2002)

Episodes

E1. Happiness Machines

58 min

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1...

E2. The Engineering of Consent

58 min

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.

E3. There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads. He Must Be Destroyed

58 min

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas of Wilhelm Re...

E4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

58 min

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...