O Século do Ego - Ep.1 de 4 - Máquinas da Felicidade (LEGENDADO)

Summary

The video script explores Sigmund Freud's theories on human nature and their application by his nephew Edward Bernays in shaping mass consumer behavior. It delves into Bernays' influence on the 20th century through public relations, promoting consumerism as a means to control the 'bewildered herd.' The narrative spans from Freud's psychoanalysis to Bernays' manipulation of public desires, the rise of consumer culture, and the implications for democracy, highlighting the power struggle between corporations and government in shaping public opinion.

Takeaways

• 📚 Sigmund Freud's theories on human nature, focusing on repressed sexual and aggressive instincts, were seen as a way to understand and control the masses.
• 🔍 Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, applied Freud's theories to manipulate public opinion, pioneering the field of public relations and consumer manipulation.
• 🚬 Bernays' early work included breaking social taboos, such as promoting cigarettes to women by linking them with freedom and empowerment.
• 💡 The idea of consumerism as a means to control the masses by satisfying their inner desires was born out of the need to manage the irrational forces within people.
• 🌐 The 1920s saw the rise of psychoanalysis in America, with Freud's works gaining popularity and influencing the perception of human irrationality in society.
• 🏛️ The interwar period revealed the dangers of unleashing primal human instincts, as seen in the lead-up to World War II and the subsequent atrocities.
• 🔮 Freud became increasingly pessimistic about human nature, believing that civilization was a façade to control our inherent aggressive tendencies.
• 🗳️ The New Deal under President Roosevelt represented a shift towards a more managed democracy, with the government taking a more active role in the economy.
• 🤝 The concept of 'engineering consent' emerged, suggesting that by appealing to people's desires and fears, their behavior could be directed for political or economic ends.
• 🌐 World events, including the annexation of Austria and the rise of Nazi Germany, demonstrated the power of propaganda and manipulation of the masses.
• 🏛️ The struggle between viewing humans as rational citizens versus irrational consumers shaped the development of democracy and the role of public relations in society.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the series discussed in the transcript?

The main theme of the series is the exploration of Sigmund Freud's theories on human nature and how those in power have used these theories to try and control the masses in an age of mass democracy.

Who is Edward Bernays and how is he related to Sigmund Freud?

Edward Bernays is Sigmund Freud's nephew, and he was a pioneer in the field of public relations who applied Freud's ideas about human beings to manipulate the masses, particularly in the context of consumerism.

How did Edward Bernays use Freud's theories to influence the 20th century?

Bernays applied Freud's theories to create advertising and public relations strategies that linked mass-produced goods to people's unconscious desires, thereby manipulating their behavior and shaping consumer culture.

What was the impact of World War I on Freud's views about human nature?

World War I led Freud to see evidence of the primitive, aggressive forces within human beings that he believed were unleashed by governments during the war, reinforcing his belief in the dangerous, irrational aspects of human nature.

How did Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind influence Bernays' approach to public relations?

Freud's concept of the unconscious mind, which contains hidden and unwelcome impulses, inspired Bernays to create public relations strategies that tapped into these hidden desires to influence people's choices and behaviors.

What was the 'torches of freedom' campaign and how did it relate to Bernays' work?

The 'torches of freedom' campaign was an event orchestrated by Bernays to break the taboo against women smoking. He linked the act of women smoking cigarettes to the idea of challenging male authority, making it a symbol of female independence.

How did the Great Depression challenge the ideas of consumerism promoted by Bernays?

The Great Depression led to widespread unemployment and economic hardship, causing people to stop buying non-essential goods. This reduced consumer demand and challenged the idea of continuous consumption that Bernays had helped to establish.

What was the role of propaganda in shaping public opinion during World War II according to the transcript?

During World War II, governments used propaganda to control and manipulate the public's emotions and beliefs, seeing the masses as dangerous forces that needed to be managed and directed.

How did Freud's personal experiences in the 1930s influence his writings and theories?

Freud's experiences with the rise of Nazism, his own battle with cancer, and his eventual move to London due to the annexation of Austria by Germany led him to further develop his ideas about the need for civilization to control the dangerous, animalistic forces within human beings.

What was the significance of the 1939 New York World's Fair in the context of the script?

The 1939 New York World's Fair was significant as it showcased a vision of the future where democracy and capitalism were intertwined, with business responding to people's desires in ways that politicians could not, reinforcing the idea of consumers as passive recipients of products and ideas.

Outlines

00:00

🧐 Freud's Theories and the Birth of Mass Manipulation

The script discusses Sigmund Freud's exploration into the depths of human nature, revealing innate sexual and aggressive forces within the unconscious mind. It highlights how Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew, capitalized on these ideas to manipulate the masses through consumerism, effectively shaping modern society's focus on fulfilling subconscious desires as a means of control and societal management.

05:05

🎭 War Propaganda and the Rise of Public Relations

This paragraph delves into Edward Bernays' role as a press agent and his involvement in World War I, where he applied Freudian theory to shape public opinion. Bernays' work in promoting war bonds and the idea of democracy through propaganda is explored, as well as his transition to peacetime, where he established public relations as a means to manage the masses by leveraging their irrational desires.

10:06

🚬 Manipulating Minds: The Tobacco Industry and Women's Liberation

The script narrates Bernays' audacious campaign to break the taboo against women smoking, by linking it to the women's suffrage movement and the concept of 'torches of freedom.' This strategic move not only opened up the female market for tobacco companies but also exemplified the power of emotional symbolism in product marketing, embedding the idea that consumer choices could reflect personal empowerment.

15:06

🛍️ The Emergence of Consumer Culture and its Impact

The paragraph examines the shift in American society from a needs-based culture to one driven by desires, as orchestrated by corporations and public relations experts like Bernays. The focus was on creating a mentality where consumption became a means of expressing oneself and finding happiness, leading to the rise of department stores and the mass production of goods to cater to this engineered demand.

20:12

📊 The Psychology of Consumption and the Stock Market Boom

The script touches on the influence of Edward Bernays in promoting consumerism as a central tenet of American life, with his work in public relations helping to boost the stock market and the economy during the 1920s. It also discusses his role in shaping political perceptions, such as making President Coolidge more relatable to the public, and the dangers of overproduction and the eventual bubble burst.

25:12

🌐 Freud's Impact on American Intellectuals and the Emergence of a New Elite

This paragraph explores the reception of Freud's works in America and the subsequent impact on the intellectual community. It discusses the rise of a new elite who believed in managing the 'bewildered herd' through psychological techniques, as proposed by political thinker Walter Lippmann. The idea of democracy is questioned, with a shift towards a belief in the need for an enlightened despotism that guides the masses by appealing to their subconscious desires.

30:14

🏛️ The New Deal and the Redefinition of Democracy

The script describes President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal as a response to the Great Depression, which involved government intervention in the economy and a reimagining of democracy. It contrasts Bernays' view of the masses as irrational consumers with the New Deal's approach to treating citizens as rational participants in governance, utilizing scientific polling to gauge and respect public opinion.

35:15

🎡 The World's Fair: Showcasing the Link Between Democracy and Capitalism

This paragraph details the 1939 New York World's Fair, where Edward Bernays played a central role in promoting the synergy between democracy and capitalism. The fair presented a vision of a future America, with General Motors' exhibit 'Highways and Horizons' symbolizing the potential of an unfettered free market, while Bernays worked to reinforce the idea that democracy thrives only within a capitalist system.

40:24

🚧 The Threat to Democracy and the Rise of Fascism

The script discusses the challenges to democracy posed by the Great Depression and the emergence of fascist ideologies in Europe. It contrasts the American response, which sought to strengthen democracy through the New Deal, with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, who promised order through state control and the harnessing of the masses' irrational instincts.

45:24

🗳️ The Power of Public Opinion and the New Deal's Success

This paragraph examines the role of public opinion in the success of the New Deal and the re-election of President Roosevelt. It highlights the use of scientific polling by George Gallup and Elmo Roper, which demonstrated that the public could make informed decisions, thereby supporting the democratic process and challenging the notion that the masses needed to be manipulated or controlled.

50:25

🛑 The Backlash Against the New Deal and the Fight for Public Perception

The script describes the efforts by big businesses and the National Association of Manufacturers to counter the New Deal's influence, with Edward Bernays advising on a campaign to create emotional attachments between the public and big business. It outlines the industry's response, which included a vast public relations campaign to associate democracy with private enterprise and to shape public perception through various media.

55:26

🌍 Freud's Escape from Nazi-Dominated Europe

This paragraph narrates Sigmund Freud's departure from Austria after the annexation by Nazi Germany, detailing the assistance he received from British psychoanalyst Ernest Jones to secure a work permit for Britain. It concludes with Freud's arrival in London and his death shortly after the outbreak of World War II, setting the stage for the next episode's exploration of post-war shifts in government perspectives on democracy and human nature.

Keywords

💡Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating pathological mental states through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. In the video, Freud's theories about the unconscious mind and the instinctual drives within humans are highlighted, particularly how these ideas were applied to understand and manipulate crowd behavior and societal control.

💡Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew, was a pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, using psychological principles to influence public opinion. The script discusses Bernays' application of Freud's theories to manipulate the masses, showing how he used these insights to promote consumerism and shape public desires, which had profound effects on 20th-century society.

💡Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a set of therapeutic techniques for treating mental disorders, originating from Freud's work, that explore the role of the unconscious mind in human behavior. In the video, psychoanalysis is presented as a method Freud devised to uncover and interpret the hidden, often dangerous, instinctual drives within individuals, which influenced later ideas about mass manipulation.

💡Unconscious

The unconscious refers to the part of the mind that contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are not in immediate awareness but can influence behavior. The video emphasizes the role of the unconscious in shaping human actions and how Bernays leveraged this concept to tap into people's hidden desires to influence their consumer choices.

💡Propaganda

Propaganda is information, often biased or misleading, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. The script describes how Bernays and others used propaganda during World War I to shape public opinion and later applied similar techniques in peacetime to manipulate consumer behavior.

💡Consumerism

Consumerism is the idea of acquiring goods and services in ever-increasing amounts as the primary economic goal. The video discusses how consumerism became a central part of American life in the 20th century, with Bernays playing a key role in promoting the idea that happiness could be achieved through the consumption of mass-produced goods.

💡Public Relations

Public relations is the practice of managing and maintaining a favorable public image for a person, company, or organization. In the video, Bernays is portrayed as a master of public relations, using his understanding of crowd psychology to shape public perception and promote products and ideas.

💡Crowd Psychology

Crowd psychology is the study of how individuals behave differently in a group than they do alone. The video references Freud's and Bernays' insights into crowd psychology, showing how irrational and aggressive behaviors can be triggered in group settings and manipulated for political or commercial purposes.

💡World's Fair

The World's Fair, specifically the 1939 New York World's Fair mentioned in the script, was an international exhibition intended to showcase technological and cultural innovations. Bernays' involvement in the fair exemplified his ability to create a vision of a future democracy and capitalism, linking consumer desires with political and economic systems.

💡New Deal

The New Deal refers to a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States during the 1930s in response to the Great Depression. The video contrasts the New Deal's approach to managing the economy and society with Bernays' views on leveraging consumer desires for social control.

💡Rational vs. Irrational

The script explores the tension between the concepts of rational and irrational behavior in humans. It discusses how some believed people were rational actors capable of informed decision-making, while others, like Freud and Bernays, saw humans as driven by unconscious, irrational forces that could be manipulated for social and political ends.

Highlights

Sigmund Freud's theory suggests that primitive sexual and aggressive forces within the human mind can lead to chaos and destruction.

Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew, applied Freud's theories to manipulate the masses, influencing the 20th century significantly.

Bernays demonstrated to corporations how to create desire for mass-produced goods by linking them to unconscious desires.

The concept of satisfying people's inner selfish desires as a political strategy for mass control emerged from Bernays' work.

Freud's psychoanalysis method unveiled the unconscious mind, revealing powerful sexual and aggressive forces.

During World War I, Freud observed governments unleashing primitive forces in humans, leading to devastating consequences.

Bernays used propaganda techniques honed during wartime for peacetime mass persuasion in the United States.

Bernays' public relations strategies helped to break taboos, such as women smoking, by linking it to female empowerment.

The idea of consumerism as a means to express individuality and independence was propagated by Bernays.

Corporations realized the need to shift from a needs to a desires culture, promoting the idea of wanting new things.

Bernays was instrumental in changing the mentality of American consumers from necessity to desire for goods.

The Great Depression challenged the consumer-driven society, leading to a decline in the power of public relations.

Freud's later work, 'Civilization and Its Discontents', argued that civilization is a control mechanism for human instincts.

The rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe showed alternative ways to control human beings, inspired by Freud's theories.

Post-war America saw a shift in government approaches to managing the populace, with an emphasis on controlling dangerous instincts.

Anna Freud, Sigmund's daughter, believed in teaching people to control their irrational forces, leading to government programs on psychological management.

Edward Bernays' adaptability allowed him to work with the American government and CIA, reflecting the changing views on democracy and control.

Transcripts

new theory about human nature is put

forward by Sigmund Freud via discovered

Eastern primitive sexual and aggressive

40 hidden deep inside the minds of all

human beings

forces which have not controlled led

individuals and societies to chaos and

destruction 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 at the heart of the story is

not just Sigmund Freud but other members

of the Freud coming this episode is

about Freud's American view Edward

Bernays Bernays is almost completely

unknown today but his influence on the

20th century was nearly as great as his

uncle's eye because Bernays was the

first person to take Freud's ideas about

human beings and use them to manipulate

the masses

he showed American corporations for the

first time how they could make people

love things they didn't need by linking

mass-produced goods to their unconscious

design

out of this become a new political idea

of how to control the masses by

satisfying people inner selfish desires

one made them happy and the slow cycle

it was the start of the all-consuming

self which has come to dominate our

world today

[Music]

always ideas about how the human mind

works have now become an accepted part

of society as a psycho and every year

the psychotherapists foot is held in a

grand palace in Vienna this is the

psychotherapy boy psychotherapy become

some advanced patient asked for former

patient comes and many other people's

friends but also people from the

dealings of science who like to go to a

light elegant comfortable

but it was not always 100 years ago

Freud's ideas were hated by in fact at

that time Vienna was the center of a

vast empire ruling central year as the

part of the nobility of Habsburg court

those ideas are not really embarrassing

but the very idea of examining and

analysing ones you are feeling the

stretch their absolute control you can

see at that time these people have the

power and of course if you just write

nothing to show your bloody feelings I

mean you just couldn't you know I mean

you couldn't if you were unhappy can you

imagine you for instance you see someone

the country in a car you're deeply

unhappy you are a woman and you couldn't

go to your maid and cry on on her

shoulders well you couldn't go into the

village and and complain you know about

your feelings and you couldn't it was

exhaling your texts to somebody to just

couldn't you know because they have to

respect you now of course trying to see

put that thought very much into question

because you you need to examine

yourselves you would have to put a lot

of other things into question your

society everything but surrounds you and

that was difficult thing at that time

money because you're safe

created empires a certain extent would

have fallen to bits much earlier already

but what frightened the rulers of the

Empire even law with Freud's idea that

hidden inside all human beings with

dangerous instinctual drives voice it

devised a method he called

psychoanalysis

by analyzing dreams and free association

he had unearthed Eastern powerful sexual

and aggressive forces which were the

remnants of our animal path feelings

we're oppressed because they were too

dangerous

Freud devised a method for exploring

Obsidian part of the mind which we

nowadays call the unconscious which the

part that is totally unknown to our

consciousness that they're just a

barrier in all our minds which prevents

these hidden and unwelcome impulses for

the unconscious from emerging good night

in 1914 the austro-hungarian Empire led

Europe into war as the horror mounted

Freud saw a terrible evidence of the

truth of the

saddest thing is that this is exactly

the way we should have expected people

to behave from our knowledge of

psychoanalysis governments had unleashed

the primitive forces in human being and

no one seemed to know how to stop

[Music]

at that time Freud's young nephew Edward

Bernays was working at the press agent

in America

your main client was the world famous

opera singer Caruso who was touring the

United States her name is Pam had

emigrated to America 20 years before but

he kept in touch with his uncle and

joined him for husband to help the

bearnaise was now about to return to

Europe for a very different reason on

the night that Caruso opened in Toledo

Ohio America announced it was entering

the war against Germany and Austria as a

part of the war the US government set up

a committee on public information when

Ames was employed a remote American wine

in the proud the President Woodrow

Wilson had announced that the United

States would fight not to restore the

old Empire but to bring democracy to all

of Europe where a huge extremely skilled

in promoting this idea both at home and

abroad but at the end of the world was

asked to accompany the president of the

Paris Peace Conference

then in my surprise they asked me to go

with Woodrow Wilson to the pre-shopping

and at the age of 1926 I was in parish

for the entire time of the peace

counters it was held in the suburb of

Paris and we were to make the world safe

for democracy that would be slowing

Wilson's reception and time was founded

by men the other American propaganda

their propaganda had portrayed Wilson

the liberator of the people

a man who would create a new world in

which the individual be free they have

made him a hero of the matter and as he

watched the crowd surged around Wilson

Bernays began to wonder whether it would

be possible to do the same type of mass

persuasion but in peace in the United

States I decided if you could use

propaganda for war you can certainly use

it for peace

and pop again they got to be a bad word

because of the German Union so what I

did was he tried to find some other

words so we found the way to counsel on

Public Relation Bernays returns a New

York and set up with a public relations

Thompson and a small office of Broadway

which was the first time the travel ever

be you

since the end of the 19th century

America had become an last industrial

for that the millions clustered together

religion

Bernays was determined to find a way to

manage and alter the way his new crowd

thought in fact the Buddha he turned the

writings of his uncle Dickens while

incarcerated country's uncle the gift

from Havana cigar in return

Croy defend him a copy of his general

introduction to psychoanalysis Rene is

ready and the picture of hippies

irrational forces inside human beings

fascinated he wondered whether he might

make money by manipulation young

conscience what Eddie got from Freud was

indeed this idea that there is a lot

more going on in human decision-making

not only among individuals but even more

about the amount groups than this idea

that information drives behavior and so

any began to formulate this idea that

you had to look at things that were

played of people's irrational emotions

and you see that moved any immediately

into a different category from other

people in his field and most government

officials and managers of the day who

thought if you just hit people with all

this factual information they would look

at that and say oh of course

in any group that was not the way the

world worked then I set out to

experiment with the minds of the popular

classes his most dramatic experiment was

to persuade women to smoke at that time

there was a taboo against women smoking

and one of his early clients George Hill

the president of the American tobacco

corporation asked our names

to find a way of breaking it they were

losing half of our market because men

have invoked the taboo against women

smoking in public could you do anything

about that I said let me think about it

and then I would say the value of

permission to see a psychoanalyst

find out what cigarettes mean the woman

we said well of course so I called up

dr. grill Abril who's the movie psycho

Hanley in New York at nighttime I can't

even call my uncle why didn't you call

your uncle he was a young a Abril was

one of the first psychoanalyst in

America and for largely he told Bernie

that cigarettes were a symbol of the

penis and of male sexual power

he told Bernays if he could find a way

to connect cigarettes with the idea of

challenging male town and women would

smoke because then they would have their

own penises every year

Neil held an Easter Day Parade to which

thousands King and Bearnaise decided to

stage an event he persuaded a group of

rich every time to hide cigarette under

their clothes then they should join the

parade and as a given signal from him

there was a light up the cigarettes

dramatically Bernays then informed the

press that he had heard that a group of

suffragettes were preparing to protest

by lighting out what they called torches

of freedom

he knew this would be an okra and he

knew that all of the photographers would

be there to capture this moment and so

he was ready with a phrase which was

torches of freedom and so here you have

a symbol women young women debutantes

smoking a cigarette in public with a

phrase that means anybody who believes

in this kind of equality pretty much has

to support them in the ensuing debate

about this because torches of freedom

I mean what's on All American coins it's

Liberty she's holding up the torch again

so all of this is there because it is

emotion there's memory there's a

rational phrase even though it's using a

lot of emotion elements it's it's a

phrase that works in a rational sense

all of this is together and so the next

day this was not just in all of the New

York papers it was across the United

States and around the world

and from that point forward the sale of

cigarettes to women began to write he

had made them socially acceptable with a

single symbolic act what donors have

created with the idea that a woman

smoked it made her more powerful and

independent an idea still persisted

today

[Music]

right and Mason realized that it was

possible to persuade people to behave

irrationally if you link product to

their emotional desires and feelings the

idea that smoking actually made women

freer was completely irrational but it

made them feel more independent

it meant that irrelevant objects could

become powerful emotional symbols of how

you wanted to be seen by others any

Brunei's saw the way to sell product was

not to sell it to your intellect that

you ought to buy an automobile but that

you will feel better about it if you

have this automobile I think he

originated that idea that they weren't

just purchasing something but they were

engaging themselves emotionally or

personally in the product or service

there's not you you think you need a new

piece of clothing but you'll feel better

with the piece of clothing that was his

contribution in a very real sense we see

it all over the place today but I think

he originated the idea of the emotional

connect to a product or service

[Music]

what Bernays was doing fascinated

America's corporation they have come out

of the war rich and powerful but they

had a growing worried system of mass

production had flourished during the war

and now millions of goods the pouring

our production line what they were

frightened was the danger of

overproduction it would come a point

when people had enough goods would

simply stop time

up until that point the majority of

products were still sold for masses on

the basis of me other rich had long been

used to luxury goods for the millions of

working-class Americans most products

were still advertised as necessities

goods like shoes stockings even cars

were promoted in functional terms for

their durability the aim of the

advertisements was simply show people

the products practical virtues nothing

more what the corporation's realized

they had to do was transform the way the

majority of Americans thought about

products one leading Wall Street banker

Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers was clear

about what was necessary we must shift

America he wrote from a needs to a

desired culture people must be trained

to desire to want new things even before

the old have been entirely consumed we

misshapen new mentality in America man's

desire that's overshadow it needs

prior to that time the West nil American

consumers the American worker and there

was a merkin owner and the manufacturing

they saved and they ate what they had to

when the people shopped for what they

needed and while the very rich may have

bought things they didn't need most

people did not a maser vision but break

with that way you would have things that

you didn't actually need but you wanted

as apposed and needed a man who would be

at the center of changing that mentality

for the corporations with Edward Bernays

renée's really is the guy within the

United States more than anybody else who

sort of brings to the table

psychological theory as something that

is an essential part

wellhow from the corporate side of how

we are going to appeal to the masses

effectively and the whole sort of

merchandising establishment and scales

and sales establishment is ready for

Sigmund Freud I mean they are ready for

understanding what motivates the human

mind and so that if it's real openness

to Grenadiers technique experience to

sell products to the masses beginning in

the early 20th the New York banks undid

the creation of change of department

stores across America they were to be

the outfit for the mass produced goods

and Bearnaise job but to produce the new

type of customer

Bernays began to create many of the

techniques of masking Tina's persuasion

he now liberal he was employed by

William Randolph Hearst promote his new

women's magazines and Bearnaise

glamorized them by placing articles and

advertisements that linked products made

by others of his clans to famous film

stars like Clara Bow who was also a tree

renee has also began the practice of

product placement in the movie and he

dressed the stars of the film's

premiered with clothes and jewelry from

other firms who represent he was

acclaimed the first person to tell car

companies they could sell cars as

symbols of male sexuality he employed

psychologists to issue report said

products were good for you and then

pretended they were independent studies

the organized fashion shown in

department store and paid celebrities to

repeat the new and essential message we

bought things not just for need but to

express your inner sense of yourself to

others there are a psychology of breath

have you ever thought about it I can

expect your character you'll have

interesting characters but some of them

are all hidden so wonder why you wear a

lot a dress always the same or the same

had the same coat I'm sure all of you

are interesting and have wonderful

things about you

they're looking at you in the street you

all look so much the same and that's why

I'm talking to you about the psychology

of dress try and express yourselves

better in your dress

bring out certain things that you think

I hidden I want a few part of this angle

of your personality I like that question

oh why do you like judge good oh there's

more to see what good does that do you

makes more attractive per day in 1927 an

American journalist wrote a change has

come over our democracy which is called

consumption the American citizens first

importance to his country is now no

longer that of citizen but that our

consumer the growing wave of consumerism

helped in turn to create a stock market

and yet again Edward Bernays became

involved promoting the novel idea that

ordinary people should buy shares

borrowing money from banks he also

represented and yet again millions

followed his advice he was uniquely

knowledgeable about how people in large

numbers are going to react to products

and ideas but in terms in political

terms if he were to go out to I can

imagine that he had three people

standing listen wasn't particularly

articulate was a kind of funny looking

and didn't have any sense of reaching

out for people one on one

none at all he didn't talk about didn't

think about people in groups of one

thought about people in groups of

thousand Bernays whom became famous as

the man who understood the mind of the

price and in 1924 the president

contacted him President Coolidge was a

class taciturn man and become a national

joke the perhaps portrayed him as a

ghoul humanist figure Bernays his

solution was to do exactly the same that

he had done with products he persuaded

34 famous film stars to visit the White

House and for the first time politics

became involved with public relations

and I line up the very loyal people and

I'd say what a lady he's al Joffe as in

this crazy al yo she may say every

newspaper in the United States has

a story says Coolidge and detained

actors at White House and The Times has

a headline which said president merely

left and everybody was happy

[Applause]

but while Bernays became rich and

powerful in America in Vienna his uncle

was facing disaster like much of Europe

the and I was suffering an economic

crisis and massive inflation which wiped

out all of Freud's savings facing

bankruptcy he wrote to his nephew for

help

Bernays responded by arranging for

Freud's works to be published for the

first time in America began to send his

uncle precious dollars which Freud kept

secretly in a foreign bank account

he was Freud agent if you will to get

his books published well of course

once the books were being published and

he couldn't help himself but to promote

these books see that everybody around

them make them controversial emphasize

the fact that you know what Freud says

about sex and what he says cigarettes

are a symbol of and so on and so forth

how you suppose all those stories got

out certainly the academics weren't

spreading these around the country Eddie

Bernays was then when Freud became

accepted well then of course devoted to

a client saying well I will see see then

that had some cachet but notice their

first Eddie created uncle siggy in the

u.s. made him acceptable secondly and

thirdly then capitalized a little piggy

typical Bernays performance Brenner is

also suggested that Freud promote

himself in the United States he proposed

his uncle write an article for

cosmopolitan a magazine that Bernay is

represented entitled a woman's mental

place in the home Freud was furious such

an idea he said was unthinkable

it was vulgar and anyway he hated

America

Boyd was now becoming increasingly

pessimistic about human being in the

mid-twenties he retreated in the summers

to the Alps I'm time staying in an old

hotel the posse Armour it's in Bexar

skull

it is now ruined Freud began to write

about group behavior about how easily

the unconscious aggressive forces in

human beings could be triggered when

they were in crowds boy believed he had

underestimated the aggressive instincts

in human beings they were far more

dangerous that he's originally thought

after World War 1 what was basically a

pessimist

he felt that man is any impossible

creature a very very sadistic and and

bad species and they did not beliefs

that may can be brought many said the

horses hammer the most ferocious animal

of excist the enjoy torturing and

killing and he didn't like men

[Music]

publication of Freud's works in America

have an extraordinary effect from

journalist and intellectual in 1920

what fascinated and frightened them was

the picture Freud painted with submerged

dangerous forces lurking just under the

surface of modern society forces that

could erupt easily to produce the

frenzied mob which had the power to

destroy even government

it was this they believe that happen in

Russia many this meant that one of the

guiding principles of mass democracy is

right to believe the human beings could

be trusted to make decisions on a

rational basis the leading political

writer Wilfred Lippmann argued that if

human beings were in reality driven by

unconscious irrational forces and it was

necessary to rethink democracy what was

needed was a new elite who could manage

what he called the bewildered herd this

would be done through psychological

techniques that will control the

unconscious feelings of the masses so

here you have water wetland probably the

most influential political thinker in

the United States who is essentially

saying that the basic mechanism of the

mass mind is unreason is a rationality

is animality he believes that the mob in

the street which is how he sees ordinary

people or people who were driven not by

their minds but by their spinal cords

the notion of kind of animal drives

unconscious instinctual drives lurking

beneath the surface of civilization and

so they started looking towards

psychological science as a way of

understanding the mechanisms by which

the popular mind works specifically with

the goal of figuring out how to

understand how to apply those mechanism

to strategies for social control Edward

Bernays was fascinated by Littman's

arguments and also saw a way to promote

himself by using

in 1920 she began to write a series of

books which argued that he had developed

the very technique Lippmann was calling

for by stimulating people's inner

desires and then stating them with

consumer products he was creating a new

way to manage the irrational force of

the market he called it the engineering

of consent democracy to my father was a

wonderful concept but I don't think he

felt that all those public's out there

would have reliable judgment not that

they could that they very easily might

vote for the wrong man or want the wrong

thing so that they had to be guided from

above its enlightened despotism in a

sense you appeal to their desires and

their unrecognized longings that sort of

thing that you can tap into their

deepest desires or their deepest fears

and use up to your own purposes breath

in 1928 President came to pas who agreed

with Burma

president Hoover with the first

politician to articulate the idea that

consumerism has become the central motor

of American life after his election he

told a group of advertisers and public

relations men you have taken over the

job of creating desire and have

transformed people into constantly

moving happiness machine machines which

have become the key to economic program

you

what was beginning to emerge in nineteen

twenties with a new idea of how to run

mass democracy at its heart was the

consuming self which not only made the

economy which was happy and voted and

created a stable Society both relays and

rhythms concept of managing the masses

takes the idea of democracy and it turns

it into a palliative it turns it into

giving people some kind of feel good

medical medication that will respond to

an immediate pain or immediate yearning

but will not alter the objective

circumstances one iota

I mean democracy really the idea of

democracy at its heart was about

changing the relations of power that he

governed the world for so long and

Bearnaise concept of democracy was one

of maintaining the relations of power

even if it meant that one needed to sort

of stimulate the psychological lives of

the public and in fact in his mind that

was what was necessary that if you can

keep stimulating the irrational self

then leadership can basically go on

doing what it wants to do ranae's now

became one of the central figures and a

business elite that dominated American

society and politics in the nineteen

trenches he also became extremely rich

and lived in a suite of rooms in one of

New York's most expensive hotels when he

gave frequent parties oh my good he had

a home in the corner suite of the

sherry-netherland hotel and here's this

wonderful suite Lolly's windows looking

out on Central Park and across at the

Plaza and on the square and he would use

this place to hold a soiree

the mayor would come all the media

leaders would come the political leaders

the business leaders the people in the

arts I mean it was a who's who people

wanted to know Eddie Bernays because you

know he himself became a sort of a

famous man a sort of a magician who

could make these things happen

he knows that

buddy knows the mayor and you know the

senator and he calls politicians I'm

telephone as if he did get literally a

higher bang out of doing what he did and

that's fine but it can be a little hard

on the people around you especially when

you make other people feel stupid people

worked for him were stupid children was

stupid and if people did things in a way

that he didn't so he wouldn't have done

them they were stupid that was it was a

word that he used over and over Albert

dopants to this they was stupid but

Bernays is power with about to be

destroyed dramatic and by a type of

human rationality he could do nothing to

control at the end of October 1929

Bernays organized a huge national event

to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of

the invention of the light bulb

President Hoover the leaders of major

corporations and bankers like john d

rockefeller we're all summoned by

grenades to celebrate the power of

American business but even as they

gathered news came through that shares

on the New York Stock Exchange were

beginning to fall crop

[Music]

throughout the 19th actuator had

borrowed billions of dollars the bank

had promoted the idea that this was a

new era where market crashes were a

thing of the past but they were wrong

what was about to happen is the biggest

stock market crash in history investors

of panic and began to sell in a blind

relentless fury that no reassurance web

bankers or politicians could hold and on

the 29th of October 1929 the market

collapsed

[Music]

the effect of the crash on the American

economy the disaster faced with

recession and unemployment millions of

American workers stopped buying good

they didn't need the consumer group that

Bernays have done so much to engineer

disappear he the profession of public

relations Sultan things

Bernays his brief moments of power seem

to be the effect of the Wall Street

Crash on Europe was also catastrophic it

intensified the growing economic and

political crisis in the new democracy in

both Germany and Austria there were

violent street battles between the armed

wing of different political policy

against this backdrop Freud who is

suffering from cancer of the jaw were

treated yet again to the Alps he wrote a

book called civilization and its

discontents it was a powerful attack on

the idea that civilization was an

expression of human progress instead

Freud argued civilization had actually

been constructed to control the

dangerous animal forces inside human

being what was implicit in Freud's

argument was that the ideal of

individual freedom which was at the

heart of democracy was impossible human

beings could never be allowed to truly

express themselves because it was too

dangerous they must always be controlled

and the dust is you just can't change

man doesn't want to be civilized and he

is a lot the civilization brings

discontent but this is necessary to

survival otherwise he couldn't survive

so he must be discontent because this

would be the only way to keep him within

limits what is fry think that we are

here he called here and he didn't

believe in it we had 32 parties and it

was it before those bodies don't vanish

there is no Germany that's true you

can't have 32 parties and so they afraid

this one person very important into this

comedy Freud was not alone in his

pessimism politicians like Adolf Hitler

emerge from a growing despair in 1920s

about democracy the Nazis were convinced

the democracy was dangerous because it

unleashed a selfish individualism but

didn't have a means to control it

Hitler's party the National Socialists

stood in elections promising in their

propaganda they would abandon democracy

because of the chaos and unemployment it

led to love

[Music]

March 1933 the National Socialists were

elected to power in Germany and they set

out to create a society that would

control human beings in a different way

one of their faster is to take control

of business planning production would in

future be done by the state the free

market was too unsafe as the crash and

workers who work at leisure time was

also keen on straight to a new

organization will thank you join one of

its muscles with service not so

but the Nazis did not see this as a

return to an old form of autocratic

control it was a new alternatives

democracy it wished the feelings and the

desires of the masses would still be

central but they would be channeled in

such a way as to bind the nation

together

chief expose the Joseph girl and

minister of propaganda it's much food

saying mass of resistance the Australian

root desperado burger Lucinda assess the

health and asparagus supervenient

Buddhist October gurbles

organize huge rallies his function he

said was to forge the mind of the nation

into a unity of thinking feeling and

design one of his inspirations he told

the American journalist with the

writings of Freud's nephew Edward

Bernays

in his work on crowd psychology Freud

described how the frightening

irrationality inside human beings could

emerge in such groups the deep what he

called libidinal forces of desire were

given up to the leader while the

aggressive instincts unleashed on those

outside the group Freud wrote this in a

warning but the Nazis were deliberately

encouraging these forces because they

believed they could master and control

[Music]

muscles are found by the reason for fear

they love each other and delicate ideas

are looking to be checked on top Faber

wasn't the technical well positive love

this

[Music]

Oh

I could see from afar looking up with a

mob towards food linen how all those

hundred thousand of people when they

parted it can completely live until they

began to shout his wife I will never get

out of my medicine and here I've got

confirmation how those irrational for

uncontrollable for enjoy in with long

everyone it worked

we are running wild that it comes much

much you

[Music]

and in America true democracy was under

threat from the force of the angry mob

the effect of the stock market crash had

been disastrous there was growing

violence as an angry population took out

their frustration on the corporation who

a theme for a colorful design then in

1932 a new president was elected who is

also going to use the power of the state

to control the free market but his aim

was not to destroy democracy but to

strengthen and to do this he was going

to develop a new way dealing with the

map I am prepared under my

constitutional duty to recommend the

measures that are stricken nation in the

midst of a stricken world may require

but in the event that the national

emergency is still critical

I shall not evade the clear course of

beauty that will then confront me I

shall ask the Congress for the one

remaining instrument to meet the crisis

broad executive power

[Music]

it was the start of what would become

known as the New Deal Roosevelt

assembled a group of young technocrats

and planners in Washington who told them

that their job was to plan and run janou

industrial projects for the good of the

nation

Roosevelt was convinced the stock market

crash had shown that Lacey faire

capitalism could no longer run modern

industrial economy it had become the job

of government big business was horrified

but the New Deal attracted the

aberration of the novel especially

Joseph Goebbels applicant o'clock in

America with an allegory positive in in

greater conversion dr. festive observing

that President Roosevelt was a liberator

of the mystic in Vegas in a hundred fish

in the task undisclosed the webshop

dahyun sub-caliber brain al-abideen

the film in Jordan Arabic flows in the

Arab lecture and the Machine on Indian

control and Belova hobbling Iran era

Alton alabaster and sorcery on the

skirmish align diplomatic initiative

developed in the open house located east

of the person began this poison hidden

mass slam and anger but although

Roosevelt liked phenoms was trying to

organize society in a different way

unlike

he believes that human beings were

rational we could be trusted to take an

active part in government but is not

believed it was possible to explain his

policies to ordinary Americans and take

into account their opinion to do this he

was helped by the new ideas of an

American social scientist called George

Gallup

favorite reading of UDL Washington the

survey of US public opinion on officers

at Princeton New Jersey of pain

statistician dr. George Gallup tells

Washington from week to week

what's the nation is thinking and in New

York Fortune magazine's analyst Elmo

Roper compiles for publication a

continuous record of the nation's

approval or disapproval of how the

country is being run

Gallup and Roper rejected Bernays view

that human beings were at the mercy of

unconscious forces and so needed to be

controlled their system of opinion

polling was based on the idea that

people could be trusted to know what

they wanted they argued that one could

measure and predict the opinions and

behavior of the public if one are

strictly factual questions and avoided

manipulating their emotions well how

about this one

do you think bank and D Roosevelt's New

Deal has been bad for the nation in

general now that question floated they

automatically suggest massive well how

about this is your present feelings

toward Christ and rose above one of

general approval or general disapproval

that's better

prior to scientific polling the view of

many people was that you couldn't trust

public opinion it was irrational that it

was ill-informed chaotic unruly and so

forth and so that opinion should be

dismissed but with scientific polling I

think it established very clearly that

people do are rational that they do make

good decisions and this office democracy

a chance to be truly informed by the

public giving everybody a voice in the

way the country is run I know my father

wouldn't necessarily say the voice for

the public is the voice of God but he he

did feel very much that the voices of

the people is a rational voice and

should be heard what Roosevelt was doing

was forging a new connection between the

masses and politicians no longer were

they irrational consumers who were

managed by stating their desire they

said they were sensible citizens who

could take part in the governing of the

country in 1936 Roosevelt stood for

reelection he promised further control

of a big business to the corporation did

at the beginning of a dictatorship

Roosevelt interferes with private

enterprise and is running the country

into debt for generations to come

the way to get recovery is to let

business alone the Roosevelt with

triumphantly reelection my friends would

like a real landslide this time thank

you again

anyone I also see you all very soon and

vigil and affectionate tonight faced

with this business now decided to fight

back to regain power in America at the

heart of the battle would be Edward

Bernays and the profession here invented

public relations following that election

business people start to get together

and start to carry on discussions

primarily in private and they start

talking to each other about the need to

sort of carry on ideological warfare

against the New Deal and to reassert the

sort of connectedness between the idea

of democracy on the one hand and the

idea of privately owned business on the

other and so under the umbrella of an

organization which still exists which is

called the National Association of

Manufacturers and whose membership

included all of the major corporations

of the United States a campaign is

launched explicitly designed to create

emotional attachments between the public

and big business it's grenades

techniques being used on a grand scale I

mean totally

General Motors parade of parkland

traveling the high roads and by roads of

America bringing to millions of

Americans in their own hometown the

fascinating story behind modern industry

drawing act the campaign set out to show

dramatically that it was business not

politicians who had created modern

America battle mode of living were

Oliver

Bernays was an advisor to General Motors

but he was no longer alone the industry

he had found it now flourished as

hundreds of public relations advisors

organized a vast campaign they not only

used versus prints and billboards but

managed to insinuate their message into

the editorial pages of the newspapers if

the came of bitter fight in response to

the campaign the government made film

that warned of the unscrupulous

manipulation of the press by big

business and the central villain was the

new figure of the public relations man

they try to achieve their aims by

working entirely behind the scene

corrupting and deceiving the public the

aims of such groups may be either good

or bad so far as the public interest is

concerned but their methods are a grave

danger to democratic institution the

films also showed how the responsible

citizen could monitor the press

themselves they could create a charge

that analyzed the reporting for signs of

hidden bias but such earnest instruction

there should be no match for the

powerful imagination of Edward Bernays

[Music]

he was about to help create a vision of

the Utopia that free-market capitalism

would build in America if it was

unleashed

[Music]

in 1939 New York hosted the world's fat

adword banners of the central advisor he

insisted that the theme is a link

between democracy and American business

[Music]

at the heart of the fair with a giant

white dome the Bernays named democracy

tea and the central exhibit was a vast

working model of American future

constructed by the General Motors

Corporation - my father the World's Fair

was an opportunity to keep the status

quo that is capitalism in a democracy

democracy and capitalism that marriage

linking like just like that he did that

by manipulating people and getting them

to think that she couldn't have real

democracy in anything but a capitalist

society which was capable of doing

anything of creating these wonderful

highways of making evil moving pictures

inside everybody's house of telephones

that didn't need cords of squeak

roadsters I mean it was if they were it

was it was it was consumerist but at the

same time you inferred that in a funny

way democracy and capitalism weren't

together the world's power was an

extraordinary success and captured

America's imagination the vision it

portrayed was of a new form of democracy

in which business responded to people's

innermost desire in a way politicians

could never do

but it was a form of democracy that

depended on treating people not as

active citizens of Roosevelt did it as

passive consumers because this burn

Athens is the key to control and amass

democracy it's not that the people are

in charge but that the people's desires

are in charge the people are not in

charge the people exercise no

decision-making power within this

environment so democracy is reduced from

something which assumes an active

citizenry to the idea of the public as

passive consumers ah driven primarily by

instinctual or unconscious desires and

that if you can in fact trigger those

needs and desires you can get what you

want them for this struggle between the

two views of human beings as to whether

they were rational or irrational was

about to be dramatically affected by

events in Europe events that would also

change the fortunes of the Freud Amelie

in March 1938 the knot is annexed

Austria it is called the unsure if you

are arrived Indiana to an extraordinary

outpouring of math regulation but even

as he drove through the city behind the

scenes the Nazis were systematically

whipping up and unleashing the hatred of

the crowd against the enemies of the new

greater Germany

the untruth was a kind of exploring of

Cobra hatred against the enemy is the

so-called enemies of all thoroughly

considered enemies against the Jews him

in who totally and also against a lot of

atheist audiences who had opposed in our

face in Austria they said it's

legitimate now you can do what you want

so they did it stealing robbing and

killing and country than one and human

depravity of course is always near very

near to to normally it can change very

quickly

as the violence and assassinations raged

in Vienna

Freud decided he had to leave his aim

was to go to Britain but he knew that

Britain like many countries was refusing

entry to most Jewish refugees but help

came from the leading psychoanalyst in

Britain Ernest Jones he was in the same

ice skating club as the Home Secretary

for Samuel 4 and Jones persuaded her to

issue Freud a British work permit and in

May 1938 Freud his daughter Anna and

other members of his family set off for

London

Freud arrived in London as Britain was

preparing for war he settled with his

daughter Anna in a house in Hampstead

the Freud's cancer was now far advanced

and in September 1939 just three weeks

after the outbreak of war he died the

second world war would utterly transform

the way government's saw democracy and

the people they governed

next week's program will show how the

American Gold results Apple became

convinced the worst savage dangerous

forces hidden inside all human beings

forces that needed to be controlled the

terrible evidence from the death camps

seemed to show what happened when these

forces were Unleashed and politicians

and planners in post-war America would

come to believe that hidden under the

surface of their own population for the

same dangerous

when they would transfer Freud family to

help control his enemy within

[Music]

and ever adaptable Edward Bernays would

work not just for the American

government but the CIA and Sigmund

Freud's daughter Anna would also become

powerful in the United States but she

believed that people could be taught to

control the irrational forces within it

out of this would come vast government

programs to manage the inner

psychological life of the matter the

century of the self continues next

Monday night on BBC 2 same time 8

o'clock tonight the final part of FAA

[Music]

[Music]