The Century of the Self (Full Adam Curtis Documentary)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it often and strongly as an eye-opening account of marketing psychology and the engineering of consumer society.
What it is
Adam Curtis' multi-part documentary on how Freud's ideas and Edward Bernays' public relations shaped consumer culture and political control. It argues that business and government learned to manufacture desires.
Recommended by 13 HN commenters across 13 different months, 2016 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec urza · 2016-11 · on “Is democracy a failure? (1861)”
Indeed we should be afraid of modern advertisers. They exploit the nature of human mind, to manipulate us into decisions that are often not in our best interest. Politicians then use advertisers to manipulate masses to ensure power for themselfs. In my country people in last elections elected an Olygarch, multi billionair, who controls whole agriculture, all main media, medical and other industries and now he is writing laws that suits his needs and stealing billions in "donations" from us. How is this possible? How was he elected in democracy? How is it possible that he has support of majority of people? Because he has very good PR, advertisement and propaganda team. Anyone who hasnt seen "
Strong rec stevewillows · 2017-12 · on “IKEA Effect”
I love building IKEA furniture. For me, there is a certain controlled fear that comes with opening the boxes. I know it'll go together, because.. well, its not difficult, but there's always that lingering fear that it won't. In regards to the egg in the instant mix (pancakes, cakes, etc), this is mentioned in Adam Curtis' 'The Century of the Self'[1], which is a fantastic documentary, and definitely worth a watch. [1] [this video]
Strong rec cronix · 2018-12 · on “Why Is America So Angry? The Real Roots of American Rage”
Having recently discovered Adam Curtis (from other HN posts), I'd highly recommend watching his documentaries. All of them. Absolutely riveting stuff. HyperNormalization: [LINK] Bitter Lake: [LINK] The Trap: [LINK] The Power of Nightmares: [LINK] The Mayfair Set: [LINK] The Century of the Self: [this video]
Strong rec mistermann · 2020-04 · on “Anatomists of Melancholy in the Age of Coronavirus”
The documentary Century of Self (re: Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays) gets into this type of thing , and many, many others. [LINK] Full: [this video] 10 minute trailer/summary: [LINK] If someone wants to check out the above political aspect, fast forward to the 3 hour mark or so. Fair warning, this would be typically filed under conspiracy theories / propaganda by most people, but even so, it is by far one of the most compelling ones I've seen. It very much advocates for the common man, and I believe makes a decent case. It certainly has had a major effect on the way I view how the world works, but YMMV.
Strong rec orasis · 2022-09 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?”
“The Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis. [this video] It goes through each decade of the 1900s and explains how Freud’s psychology and the new field of marketing completely reshaped society. For the first time in my life I feel like I understood the “why” of how things work in American society. This film is probably best if you’re age 40+ and actually remember some of the events.
Strong rec badrabbit · 2023-04 · on “The Cult of Sigmund Freud”
I wholly distrust anything freudian. Every major claim he made I keep finding serious flaws in it. Freud did not popularize the unconscious or thinking about how you think. Basic children's sunday school at a Church even talks about how you think. Major religions from Christianity to Buddhism talk about how the thought life of a person affects everything and the split and conflicted nature of humans. They just don't use post-freudian terms like conscious and unconscious. What freud popularized was a secular way of coping with how humans think, analyzing it in a purely secular context and considering thousands of years of knowledge on the subject as childish fairytales and defining a framewor
Recommends seltzered_ · 2017-02 · on “HyperNormalisation (2016) [video]”
Adam Curtis has a history of making these films. Worth also checking out his 2002 film 'the century of the self'. Wikipedia on Adam Curtis: [LINK] The century of the self on youtube: [this video] Other films of his are also on archive.org
Recommends compcoffee · 2018-09 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?”
> The Century of the Self: [this video] I think all of Adam Curtis' documentaries are worth a watch: [LINK] Some others favourites off the top of my head: 808 (about the drum machine): [LINK] Scratch: [LINK] Hoop Dreams: [LINK] Startup.com (a classic!) : [LINK] The Fog of War: [LINK]