“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
—Sigmund Freud | Founder of psychoanalysis and uncle of Edward Bernays
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country (America)."
—Edward Bernays | “the father of public relations” from his book, Propaganda, 1928
Watch a summary of 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays
Listen to a full audiobook of 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays
“The public must be put in its place … so that each of us may live free of the trampling and … roar of a bewildered herd.”
—Walter Lippmann | American writer, reporter, and political commentator, writing in the 1920s
Watch a short video about Walter Lippmann and his book 'On Public Opinion'
The engineering of consent is the “use of an engineering approach—that is, action based only on thorough knowledge of the situation and on the application of scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs."
—Edward Bernays | The Engineering of Consent 1947
The Century of the Self is a British television documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It focuses on the work of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud, his nephew Edward Bernays, and daughter Anna Freud. Curtis says, "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."
Not to know the past is to be in bondage to it, while to remember, to know, is to be set free.
—Sigmund Freud
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