The Century of Self (2002)
Produced and Written by Adam Curtis
#2. The Engineering of Consent
The unleashing of raw human brutality in World War 2 made it more urgent to control the aggressive feelings hidden in the crypts of the human mind as described by Sigmund Freud. In the post war era, Freud's youngest daughter, Anna became a doyen in psychoanalysis on her accord. Even though her father was pessimistic on man's future, Anna believed that she could alter their behaviour with the right approach. Meanwhile, Edward Bernase and big companies continued making more money through their subtle advertisement messages whilst the US government and the C.I.A. used psychoanalysis to hoodwink the American public with their own agenda.
During the second World War, 49% of the American soldiers were incapacitated by mental illness and to be rehabilitated. Interestingly, they called it nostalgia then! Well, then the whole concept of this blog must be pathological as it dwells on sentimentality and nostalgic subjects! Psychoanalysts theorized that the mental illness was not the effect of war itself but rather of the unleashing of suppressed violent feelings. They cautioned that this irrational behaviour is infective and need to be controlled before it repeated itself like it did in Germany in WW2.
Anna Freud, a firm believer that environmental manipulation, conformity to said social rule and conduct would help people to live. When she was in Vienna, before their escape to England in 1938, she was seeing the children of a divorced American millionairess, Dorothy Burlingham. She thought that by strengthening our control on ego, it would be strong enough to crush the unconscious negativities. Unfortunately, we would see later on that her two kids did not do well, the son fought in vain against alcoholism and the daughter killed herself showing that the human mind is just too complicated.
In 1946, the Truman government passed The Mental Health Bill increasing the post of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and counselors. Ernest Dichter used focus groups and psychological techniques to identify and people's inner desires to help to increase sales.
In 1953, the Soviet Union tested their hydrogen bomb, increasing the fear of the Commies. At that time, the United Fruit Company who exported bananas from Guatemala had problem when the popularly elected President Arbenz nationalised the land. The Company seek Bernase's help. Even though they were no communist threat in the country, Bernase, CIA and Eisenhower government created a propaganda of fear of the Reds being just a stone's throw from US soil to justify their backing for a coup. Everybody was happy for managing to overthrow a communist government!
The CIA also tried to control minds and wipe unsavoury memories through the use of ECT and LSDs. Donald Ewen Cameron tried to make a new slate of the brain and implant new positive materials. All these endeavours only ended up in utter failure, leaving a trail of people with headaches and memory loss!
Another high profile failure was in the case of Ralph Greenson who tried to create a conductive home environment and father figure for a sorely lacking Marilyn Monroe who committed suicide in 1962.
Many, including Monroe's ex-husband, Arthur Miller, started questioning the role of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. They asked whether we are setting constraints on normal human behaviour to satisfy certain quarters in society. Suffering, they reiterated, is not a mistake and need not be undone. We should not only be looking for happiness.
Another philosopher Herbert Marcuse described the consumerism world as a schizophrenic existence and a wastage of resources giving empty prosperity. Humans had inner emotional motivational desires and not always violent or evil. Society, by conforming people to society made them dangerous. And the debate continues....
Produced and Written by Adam Curtis
#2. The Engineering of Consent
The unleashing of raw human brutality in World War 2 made it more urgent to control the aggressive feelings hidden in the crypts of the human mind as described by Sigmund Freud. In the post war era, Freud's youngest daughter, Anna became a doyen in psychoanalysis on her accord. Even though her father was pessimistic on man's future, Anna believed that she could alter their behaviour with the right approach. Meanwhile, Edward Bernase and big companies continued making more money through their subtle advertisement messages whilst the US government and the C.I.A. used psychoanalysis to hoodwink the American public with their own agenda.During the second World War, 49% of the American soldiers were incapacitated by mental illness and to be rehabilitated. Interestingly, they called it nostalgia then! Well, then the whole concept of this blog must be pathological as it dwells on sentimentality and nostalgic subjects! Psychoanalysts theorized that the mental illness was not the effect of war itself but rather of the unleashing of suppressed violent feelings. They cautioned that this irrational behaviour is infective and need to be controlled before it repeated itself like it did in Germany in WW2.
Anna Freud, a firm believer that environmental manipulation, conformity to said social rule and conduct would help people to live. When she was in Vienna, before their escape to England in 1938, she was seeing the children of a divorced American millionairess, Dorothy Burlingham. She thought that by strengthening our control on ego, it would be strong enough to crush the unconscious negativities. Unfortunately, we would see later on that her two kids did not do well, the son fought in vain against alcoholism and the daughter killed herself showing that the human mind is just too complicated.
In 1946, the Truman government passed The Mental Health Bill increasing the post of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and counselors. Ernest Dichter used focus groups and psychological techniques to identify and people's inner desires to help to increase sales.
The CIA also tried to control minds and wipe unsavoury memories through the use of ECT and LSDs. Donald Ewen Cameron tried to make a new slate of the brain and implant new positive materials. All these endeavours only ended up in utter failure, leaving a trail of people with headaches and memory loss!Another high profile failure was in the case of Ralph Greenson who tried to create a conductive home environment and father figure for a sorely lacking Marilyn Monroe who committed suicide in 1962.
Many, including Monroe's ex-husband, Arthur Miller, started questioning the role of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. They asked whether we are setting constraints on normal human behaviour to satisfy certain quarters in society. Suffering, they reiterated, is not a mistake and need not be undone. We should not only be looking for happiness.
Another philosopher Herbert Marcuse described the consumerism world as a schizophrenic existence and a wastage of resources giving empty prosperity. Humans had inner emotional motivational desires and not always violent or evil. Society, by conforming people to society made them dangerous. And the debate continues....
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