The Devil of Psychology and Marketing

I first heard about Edward Bernays in an Adam Curtis documentary, The Century of the Self. In this documentary he talks about how Bernays used the psychology of his uncle Sigmund Freud to create modern marketing and branding. This then extended to full-on social manipulation of the populace. He is one of those people that most folks have never heard of but who have had a profound influence on our lives, society, and the way that we live.

Bernays is responsible for introducing America to Freud and introducing psychology into politics, marketing, products, and much more. The world would look very different without him. In this video, we get a faster version of his influence on society and how different things could have been. If marketing, advertising and other such things have felt unnatural to you, it is because they are and Edward Bernays is the man responsible.