The Century of the Self

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The Century of the Self
The Century of the Self, DVD Cover
Directed by	Adam Curtis
Produced by	Adam Curtis Lucy Kelsall Stephen Lambert
Written by	Adam Curtis
Starring	Werner Erhard Jerry Rubin Tony Blair Bill Clinton Robert Reich Wilhelm Reich Adam Curtis
Music by	Brahms Symphony No. 3 What a Wonderful World
Cinematography	David Barker William Sowerby
Distributed by	BBC Four
Release date(s)	2002
Running time	240 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	GBPUnknown
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Century of the Self is an acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis released in 2002.

1 Overview
2 Awards
3 Criticism
4 Werner Erhard
5 Episodes
6 Music
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Overview

"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." - Adam Curtis

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their "engineering of consent".

Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the "father of the public relations industry". Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, the main opponent of Freud's theories.

Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. He cites a Wall Street banker as saying "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs."

In Episode 4 the main character is Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. He was part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in USA and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracity" during the 1939 New York World's Fair.

To quote the BBC site:

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?

[edit] Awards

Best Documentary Series, Broadcast Awards
Historical Film Of The Year, Longman-History Today Awards

Nominated for:

Best Documentary Series, Royal Television Society
Best Documentary, Indie Awards
Best Documentary Series, Grierson Documentary Awards

[edit] Criticism

The organisation Media Lens criticised Adam Curtis for not mentioning US atrocities in Guatemala.

The co-editor of Media Lens, David Edwards, argues we should ask Mr Curtis:

... why he has failed to respond to the articles and letters that have been sent to him. Ask him why The Century of the Self gave so much detailed attention to Guatemalan history, and yet failed to mention U.S. responsibility for the 150,000 civilians killed as a result of its assault on Guatemala. Ask why the series focused on this isolated U.S. intervention without mentioning that it was a small part of similar interventions elsewhere in Latin America and in the Third World generally. Is this wider pattern not central to understanding the real significance, and costs, of corporate control of domestic and foreign societies in the 20th and 21st centuries?

[edit] Werner Erhard

Werner Erhard appeared in the 2002 documentary. He appears in episode part 3 of 4. This segment of the video discusses the Est Training in great detail, and includes interviews with New York Times columnist Jesse Kornbluth, as well as Est graduates John Denver, and Jerry Rubin.