The Century of The Self Part 2 The Engineering of Consent
The Century of The Self Part 2 The Engineering of Consent Part 2 The Engineering of Consent Part two explores how those in power in postwar America used Freuds ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe Freuds underlying premise that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany, and in response to this, they set out to find ways to control the masses so as to manage the hidden enemy within the human mind. Sigmund Freuds daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy and the US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the masses. However, this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation according to those in power, as they really believed that the only way to make democracy work and have a stable so
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