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The Century of the Self: Freud’s Nephew and the Invention ofPublic Relations: An exploration of psychology, power and the genius art of PR.

  • Writer: nivsdhadphale
    nivsdhadphale
  • Jun 21
  • 7 min read

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Summer is a curious pause button, especially when you’re a part-time university lecturer. The frenzy of marking and dissertations have finally stopped haunting my dreams. I miss the students. Their energy, youthful liveliness and relentless questions, can be thought-provoking. But they push me to grow as an educator. And then there is a lovely stillness to it all. The traffic subsides, the temperature soars, and suddenly there is time. Time for naps, for overdue workouts, for my gorgeous pets, for friends, and for a bit of quality binge-watching. That’s how I stumbled across a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self on YouTube. The central figure in this four-part series is Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud. He took his uncle’s early ideas about the unconscious mind and applied them, not to heal people, but to sell them things, to sway elections and shape society. Bernays built a whole new profession rooted in psychology. He demonstrated the deep insight, cultural sensitivity, and courage that it requires. Not with facts, but by engaging emotion, fear, and identity, he turned the invisible gears of public opinion.

 

Public relations (PR) and media relations is not as simple as it looks. It is certainly not just about pushing out messages. It is about crafting a message that lands just right with different audiences.  Even people who speak the same language do not consume information rationally. Each one of us reacts, filters, and interprets communications through our own emotional lens, past experiences, cultural values, and biases. So, for PR to work well, it takes more than strategy. It takes intuition. It takes empathy. It takes maturity and broad experience. And yes, it might even take a good grasp of marketing and psychology. 

 

From Couch to Crowd: Psychoanalysis Goes Public


Image Credit: VeryWell
Image Credit: VeryWell

Freud’s psychoanalytical theory posits that human behaviour is largely controlled by unconscious desires that are socially unacceptable and irrational. He developed a foundation model of the psyche that had three complex interacting components called the id, ego and superego. According to Freud’s theory: id is primitive and has instinctual drives, the ego develops between birth and 3 years old and is the rational mediator in the conscious mind and lastly the superego emerges at 5 years of age and represents the internalised moral conscience. He said the unconscious mind has repressed memories that influence behaviour. Apparently, civilisation requires us to repress the dangerous internal impulses. Freud saw these impulses as needing suppression through therapy. While Bernays saw these same instincts as opportunities of persuasion.  He believed that marketers and political leaders had the possibility of tapping into unconscious desires like power, status or freedom and shape public behaviour – without the public even realising.

 

Birth of Customer Psychology – marketing desire over need.


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One of Bernays key insights was that people made purchases based on how products made them feel and not on balanced needs.  This was the establishment of consumer psychology moving the emphasis from product usefulness to emotional branding. A textbook example of this approach in action was his campaign for the American Tobacco Company.  During that era, it was objectionable for women to smoke in public. But he needed to increase sales for his client. What did Bernays do? He hired debutantes to march in the New York Easter Parade, lighting up cigarettes and called them the “torches of freedom”. He meticulously planned media coverage. The media were prepped in advance and photos were carefully choreographed. As a result, cigarettes became a symbol of liberation. The New York Times dated 1st April 1929 ran a story titled, “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of 'Freedom”. The message was clear: “A woman can be just as bold and free as a man.” Boom! Overnight, a cigarette wasn’t just a cigarette. It was a political statement!

 

In the principles of branding, symbolic association is a cognitive process in which one thing links to another based on the shared symbolism or meaning.  This can shape our perception, beliefs and social structures.  Bernays did not advertise but what he achieved was phenomenal. He created a narrative and then cleverly aligned it with the broader social movement which at that time was women’s rights.  This application was an early version of cause marketing where brands ride on the back of social issues to gain relevant and emotional engagement.

 

Psychological Control in Democracies – Engineering Consent


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Bernays was so skilful at applying Freud’s theories, that he even created the term “engineering consent”.  As a result of his accomplishments, Bernays was invited to work with the US government and major corporations to orchestrate policies and even a coup. He believed that if people could be guided by emotions like fear, pride or envy, then they could be steered into supporting literally anything! An unbelievable opportunity presented itself to Bernays in 1950s when he was recruited by the United Fruit Company (now called Chiquita). At that time the company’s interests in Guatemala were under threat as the country’s president was planning land reforms. But this meant corporate profits would be affected.  Bernays needed to do something drastic.  He began playing into the Cold War paranoia by using patriotic language, opinion columns and white papers. Thus, engineering consent by manipulating the storyline using cognitive biases such as confirmation bias when people found information that supported their belief and the availability heuristic where they judged the situation based on the most recent emotionally charged examples. All painting a picture of crisis and requiring urgent attention. He had literally manufactured a belief through emotional cues and not public dialogue. He instilled fear, using patriotic imagery and manipulated media coverage to justify a CIA backed coup in 1954. This underscored how media orchestration can blur the lines between persuasion and propaganda.

 

Psychology Students: this illustrates behaviourism merged with psychodynamic insights. Basically, Bernays conditioned the public through media repetition to associate specific triggers with danger.  Simultaneously he targeted deeper to reach unconscious anxieties such as fear of instability or loss of control to justify the action.

 

Marketing/Business Students: know that in the modern era this is referred to as framing and priming. Basically, he controlled how the message would be presented and very key to this is when it was delivered. In the modern foundation of PR strategy, timing message tone and emotional framing are known to arouse perception.

 

Emotional Consumerism and Identity Branding.

As Bernays theories and success grew in strength, so did his influence. Corporations began to consider consumers as emotionally driven individuals and not rational decision-makers. As a result, advertising taglines shifted from for example “this soap cleans well” to “this soap makes you feel confident, free, beautiful”. Hence, it was no longer about the product function but who you were with that product.

Psychology students:  this is a strong indicator of the application of humanistic psychology in marketing. This suggests that the self is not only shaped internally, but externally by symbols or cultural feedback. So, the consumer now mirrors the ideal self.

Marketing/Business Students: this gave rise to the unique selling proposition (USP) versus emotional selling proposition (ESP). Look around you, emotional branding has become the norm, and companies now align themselves with lifestyle. Think of what Nike, Coca Cola, Red Bull, Apple, Samsung, Patek Phillips, Hermes etc mean to consumers.


From Citizens to Consumers – a Modern Legacy

Curtis argues that Bernays and his intellectual descents have created a society where citizens are simple consumers. The assertion is that an illusion of freedom is maintained, and choices are curated by algorithms media manipulation and data driven marketing. Even politics is affected.  These days, politicians conduct outreach using focus groups while psychographics shape campaigns. Furthermore, emotional data decides how parties pitch their messages. Bernays’ legacy is that his techniques of target ads, influencer culture, storytelling and behavioural pushing are baked into the digital age.

Psychology Students: this demonstrates how psychological theories have extended into engineering persuasion. Modern tools such as neuromarketing, cognitive bias exploitation and affect regulation via social media can be traced back to Bernays work.

Marketing/Business Students: understanding Bernays work highlights strategic communications today. Media, corporates and politicians from around the world can be seen to have used a mix of cognitive psychology. It should be noted that emotional triggers and behavioural analytics help predict and shape the consumers response.


Final Thoughts

The Century of Self Documentary is not just a history lesson. I believe it challenges us to think critically about the forces that shape our decisions. Edward Bernays’ influence can be seen everywhere, from political slogans to influencer hashtags. He successfully blurred the lines between therapy and manipulation, marketing and ideology, freedom and control. The series highlights a powerful case study in applied theory. It also clearly shows psychology as the engine behind modern consumer culture. They both serve a purpose to highlight that when our unconscious desires are manipulated for profit or power, awareness becomes the only safeguard.

NivsD  (21st  June 2025)



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