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The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"

JustAdamCurtis · 2.9M views · 2016-06-20 · 58:46

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Overview

The first part of Adam Curtis' documentary series on Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays, who invented public relations. It shows how Bernays used Freud's ideas to link mass-produced goods to unconscious desires and create modern consumer persuasion.

On Hacker News

HN commenters recommend it constantly in threads about advertising, propaganda and manipulation as the origin story of the consumer society.

Recommended by 13 HN people across 9 months · HN mentions 2017–2025

Topics

Media, journalism & propagandaDocumentaries & storytellingPsychology & human behavior
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adam curtisedward bernaysfreudadvertisingpropagandaconsumerism

What people said

torpid · 2024-06 · Strong recommendation

The Century of the Self documentary by Adam Curtis does an incredible job of covering that and is well-worth the watch. [VIDEO] [LINK]

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beautifulfreak · 2019-07 · Strong recommendation

I highly recommend the documentary, Century of the Self, which details how Bernays' theories about advertising were put to use by Nazis. [VIDEO] [LINK]

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klingonopera · 2019-05 · Strong recommendation

There's a great four-part documentary by Adam Curtis about Edward Bernays, his career and the rise of marketing in the 20th century called "The Century Of The Self". It's available on YT: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by JustAdamCurtis, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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