COP3 - Secondary Research - Century of the Self (2)

Sigmund Freud Theory 


Century of the Self (Freudian Theories Applied)

It's Democracy through consumerism. We believe that we are free because we can purchase whatever we like such as a car, clothing and food. But that's the trick that has been laid down by the corperations. It's like a drug that keeps us docile even through our lives might not be all that great. The consumers are creating wealth for those in power whilst temporarily filling our needs which makes us temporarily happy.

During Albert Cummings 2002 Documentary  "Century of the Self" we learn that Bernays created many techniques of mass production which have continuously been used in the centuries to follow. One of which is linking products with famous figures and also product placement. Bernay's was the first person to take his uncles psychoanalysis theories and put it into practice on 19th Century Industrialised America. He wanted to make money by manipulating the unconcious. He played on humans irrational emotions.

The corporations realised that they had to transport how Americans thought about products. They must shift American from a needs to a desire culture. Create a new mentality that a man’s desires should overshadow his needs. The man at the centre of this change was Bernays. The God of the physiological theory.

In the 1920’s, a new idea of how to run democracy was in place. The government would make people happy and docile to create a feel good factor which will not alter the circumstances but peoples outlooks on it. Bernay’s wanted to maintain the power over the masses by altering the publics physiological state even though their lives where the same.


In Nazi Germany, in the 20th Century,  Hitler recreated the same control over the masses using the same Freudian theories except he used his face as the Icon and linked his movement