True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Century of the Self
This remarkable BBC four-part series tackles the invention of the “self”
with great intelligence and imagination. It focuses on how Freud and
his disciples invented the tools of public relations, the focus group,
and psychoanalysts as weapons to control the “irrational” impulses of
mass society. And it presents the 1960s’ self liberation and self-potential
movement as the reaction to Freud’s control mania. You may feel
you understand yourself a bit better, but you will certainly understand
our culture of the self better. I had heard about the series for years from
various enthusiasts, but it was unavailable on tape or DVD, either in the
US or the UK. And so it still is. Thankfully, a free copy can be downloaded
(yes, legally) from the Internet Archive. Though it may take hours to load,
depending on your connection speed, it’s well worth the trouble.
By Adam Curtis
2002, 240 min.
Available from Amazon
and from the Internet
Archive,
www.archive.org
Freud reading in his garden. His work offered to make
sense of the many images of the self later employed by
his family and disciples to sell things.
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