Movie Analysis Essay on The Century of the Self

Introduction

The Century of the Self is a British television documentary series produced in 2002 by a re-known journalist and filmmaker, Adam Curtis. The film was developed based on the work of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, his daughter, Anna Freud, and Freud's nephew Edward Bernays. The four-episode 60 min series describes how the ideas behind psychoanalysis were the basis of the establishment of self-absorption and consumerism in the western world. Throughout the documentary, Curtis explores the relationship between consumerism and politics in ways that can be terrifying and contemplate. The series also tries to show that the legacy of Sigmund Freud is still relevant to contemporary society. Though the modern psychologist has discredited most of Freud's theories, the Century of the Self reignites the idea that some of Freud's theories inform a human way of living in various forms, such as in politics, consumerism, and advertising.

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The Century of the Self is systematically divided into four segments: Happiness Machines is the first episode in this series. This episode pays attention to Freud's nephew Edward Bernays, also one of the celebrated pioneers of public relations. In promoting his uncle's believes that there are aggressive and lustful forces hidden in human beings, Bernays manipulates these inner needs to trigger groupthink during World War I and the advent of advertising (Curtis Ep. 1). The second episode, "The Engineering of Consent," describes Anna and Bernays's effort to help the American government devise strategies of inhibiting the uncivilized potential of the human mind. It is only through such approaches that the government believed in the achievement of a harmonious democracy (Curtis Ep. 2). The next episode, "There is a Policemen Inside All of Our Heads, He Must Be Destroyed," takes place during a different time in American history, the 1960s. This period is associated with the emergence of a young generation that was eager to embrace Freud's proposition by flaunting their inner desires. Through this change, organizations tailored their message to celebrate individualism. In this change, corporations show that Freud's tenants can be manipulated to fit in the current generation (Curtis Ep. 3). In the last episode, "Eight People Sipping Wine In Kettering," Curtis takes the viewer into the American political history. In the 1990s, when the Democrats were eager to regain the White House, the party sought the assistance of a famous public relations expert and a great-grandson to Sigmund Freud, Mathew Freud (Curtis Ep. 4). Through his expertise, the party modeled their campaigns to fulfill the innermost desires of the American people leading to success.

In the documentary series, The Century of the Self, Bernays, as brought out by Curtis, brings to the contemporary society his uncle's ideas that man is controlled by his irrational desires which, the principles of psychoanalysis, these desires can be manipulated and managed to achieve profits and power. This assumption is an essential basis to rethink Curtis's film from a contemporary democracy perspective. The themes in the film remain timely partly because the psychoanalyst still argues that present politicians still exploit the subconscious Freudian impulses to push their interest to the public. Therefore, The Century of the Self does not show our society to be free and democratic. It instead describes society as easily manipulative using psychoanalysis concepts.

Democracy is referred to as a system of governance where people have the power to choose their governing legislation independently. Through this system, it is usually presumed that people use their best knowledge to make rational decisions. However, according to Curtis film, The Century of the Self, human beings are portrayed as irrational beings who make decisions based on their subconscious desires and fears (Curtis, Ep. 1). This perspective has hence been applied on different grounds with the view of controlling the public. The aspect of consumerism portrayed in this film is essential in controlling people who are incapable of controlling themselves. That is one aspect of inhibiting democracy in contemporary society. Using ideologies from Freud's psychoanalysis view, Bernays worked with business organizations and the government to manipulate people based on their inner desires. The secret behind Freud's theory success in the business and political realm is that Bernays realized that people's desires were different from what they wanted. Fulfilling what people wanted was the essential factor (Curtis, Ep. 1). It was a hypocritical view adapted by the government to do what they wanted as far as people's desires were met.

As Curtis's film portrays, psychoanalysts, hold that people cannot develop democratic consciousness by themselves unless their unstable way of being is manipulated. Therefore, this film shows how politicians apply the concept of psychoanalysis to provide a false democratic environment at the expense of naive and ignorant members of the public. It explains how the masses are viewed as lacking knowledge of understanding the actual aspects of democracy they deserve. For instance, in episode two of the film, Curtis gives the viewer instances that Bernays and the political realm used to advance American interest during the Cold War. In developing a fake news agency that would turn Guatemala against Americans, Bernays provided the masses with what they desired (Curtis, Ep. 2). In turn, people were not able to think rationally, but rather, fulfilled desires manipulated their decision. It was through the strategy known as the engineering of consent.

For an actual contemporary democracy to be achieved, human beings need more than satisfying their unconscious desires. However, according to Curtis (Ep. 4), politicians hinder the masses from realizing that they need more than fulfilling these temporary needs. Through the first three episodes, Curtis shows the viewer how business corporations learned to read people, desires, and produce the exact products that could satisfy them. The same has been applied in governance. Every political aspirant tires to understand what people's desires and deliver resources and services that would lead to the fulfillment of the attractions for the long run. However, the "democracy" advocated by politicians during campaign periods is filled with hypocrisy, which comes to be realized later when people's desires change. Initially, when politicians match their political agenda with people's desires seems to be satisfying. However, according to the Century of the Self, this is a hidden way of presenting personal interest that can only be revealed when such agendas lead to the formulation of contradicting policies to what people expected.

The ability to read people's minds is the best way to provide a false democracy. The current society has seen the development of business organizations that produces a variety of products. People buy some products out of the desire to satisfy their unconscious needs even if they don't understand the actual need for buying. By using Freud's psychoanalysis concepts, organizations tend to tends to produce commodities they think people will need. Through this strategy, they somehow inhibit people's rational behavior of commanding production of what would add value to their freedom (Curtis, Ep. 3). In the same ways as political organizations, businesses promote policies that would yield many profits at the expense of consumers' naivety.

Works Cited

Curtis, Adam. "The Century of the Self (Documentary Series)." United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation (2002).