Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund’s devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund’s great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud’s work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society’s belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man’s ultimate goal.

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today’s world.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud’s underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government and big business used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud’s, who had turned against him and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to express itself.

Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people’s minds by business and politics.

This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through self-help movements like Werber Erhard’s Erhard Seminar Training - into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.

But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self.

Део први: Машине среће
Part I:Happiness Machines

Део други: Конструисање сагласности
Part II: The engineering of Consent

Део трећи: Има један полицајац у нашим главама - Он мора бити уништен
Part III: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

Део четврти
Part IV:

Овај текст преузет је са званичног сајта за филм (BBC 4).

This text is quote from official Movie site (BBC 4).

BBC
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Edward Bernays

По оцени многих филм “Корпорација”, снимљен 2004. год., један је од најзначајних документарних филмова снимљених у последњих пар година. Филм је номинован за многобројне награде и признања, а неке је и освојио: Награда публике (Филмски фестивал Санденс), 2004 и Специјална награда жирија на Међународном Фестивалу документарног филма у Амстердаму, 2003.год. и 2004.год. Овде (доле) можете погледати цео филм (180 минута).

According to many ( Variety, the Economist…) film The Corporation (2003) is one of the most significant documentaries filmed for the past couple of years. The film was nominated for numerous awards, and won some of them. It won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, 2004, and won a Special Jury Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival in 2003 and 2004. Here you can watch the whole movie (180 minutes).

[Nikon D80s, NEF RAW, f/4.5, 1.3", ISO 800, 70mm, White Balance: As Shot]

Serbian passport holders can travel without a visa to following countries :

• † indicates countries that have an agreement with Serbia on visa free travel; rest of the countries generally do not require visas or have adopted a unilateral waiver

Africa

Countries	allowed stay
Botswana†	90 days
Burkina Faso	90 days (on arrival)
Burundi	on arrival
Cape Verde	on arrival
Comoros	on arrival
Djibouti	10 days (on arrival)
Egypt†	30 days (issued on arrival)
Kenya	90 days (issued on arrival)
Madagascar	90 days (on arrival)
Mozambique	30 days (on airport arrival)
Niger†	90 days
São Tomé and Príncipe	30 days (issued on arrival)
Seychelles†	90 days
Tanzania	on arrival
Togo	7 days
Tunisia†	90 days
Uganda	12 months max. (on arrival)
Zambia†	90 days

Asia

Countries	allowed stay
Armenia	through validity of passport if holding letter of invitation
Azerbaijan	7 days
Cambodia	30 days (on arrival)
Iran	17 days (on arrival)
Jordan	15 days (issued on arrival)
South Korea	30 days
Laos	15 days (on airport arrival)
Lebanon	90 days (tourist visa issued on arrival)
Macau	30 days (on arrival)
Maldives	30 days (on arrival)
Nepal	150 days max. (on arrival)
Singapore	30 days (on arrival)
Sri Lanka	30 days
Timor-Leste	30 days (on arrival)
Turkey†	30 days (issued on arrival)

Europe

Countries	allowed stay
Andorra	no restriction
Albania	180 days
Belarus†	30 days
Bosnia and Herzegovina	90 days*
* Serbian ID card can be used as a travel document instead of passport.
Croatia	90 days
Macedonia†	60 days
Montenegro	no restriction*
* Serbian ID card can be used as a travel document instead of passport.
Russia†	30 days with voucher and return ticket*
* Serbian citizens do not need the Russian visa if they possess a valid hotel voucher for desired period of stay accompanied with the return ticket
Ukraine†	30 days with voucher*
* Serbian citizens do not need the Ukrainian visa if they possess a valid hotel voucher

Latin America

Countries	allowed stay
Argentina†	90 days
Chile†	90 days
Costa Rica	90 days
Cuba	90 days
Dominica	21 days
Haiti	90 days
Jamaica	on arrival
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	30 days
Peru	90 days
Trinidad and Tobago	exempted for 30 days

Oceania

Countries	allowed stay
Fiji	4 months
Federated States of Micronesia	30 days
Niue	30 days
Palau	return ticket required
Samoa	30 days
Solomon Islands	no restriction
Tonga	30 days
Tuvalu	30 days (on arrival)

Source: Wikipedia>>>> here

(aka Axle Munshine/ Axel Moonshine)