The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Adam Curtis
Narrator
Anne Bernays
Self
Robert Reich
Self
Edward L. Bernays
Self (archive footage)
Sigmund Freud
Self (archive footage)
Wilhelm Reich
Self (archive footage)
Tony Blair
Self (archive footage)
Margaret Thatcher
Self (archive footage)
Bill Clinton
Self (archive footage)
Ronald Reagan
Self (archive footage)