The Century of the Self (Full Adam Curtis Documentary)
If you’ve ever wondered how your deepest desires got hijacked by marketing campaigns, Adam Curtis’s documentary The Century of the Self is your rabbit hole. This full-length feature dives into the psychological roots of consumerism, tracing how Freud’s theories were repurposed to shape modern advertising and politics. It’s like watching the blueprint of how brands learned to whisper sweet nothings into our subconscious. Curtis doesn’t just skim the surface, he unpacks how Edward Bernays (Freud’s nephew, no less) turned psychoanalysis into a tool for mass persuasion. Think of it as the origin story of every impulse buy you’ve ever made. But it’s not all about ads and shopping carts. The documentary also explores how these psychological tactics seeped into politics, transforming citizens into consumers of ideology. Curtis shows how the shift from collective identity to individualism wasn’t just cultural, it was engineered. You’ll see how politicians started selling themselves like...