Engineering Of Consent

“The engineering of consent”, second episode of the BBC series “The century of the self”, is focused on the topic of mass society’s control seen from the point of view of Anna Freud. The dilemma is still between “control and trust”. The main argument offered is that people are driven by inner irrational forces. Therefore, for an healthy democracy, those instincts have to be controlled and eventually repressed. Anna Freud thought that the way to govern mass society was to teach people how to repress the “human barbarism”, that threatened democracy. Her main strategy is that of conformism, of linking the desires of the individual to the desires of society. The documentary provides also Herbert Marcuse’s point of view. Marcuse considered the true evil to be in society itself and its control of the unconscious. In his opinion,

the unconscious should be let free.

In the 20th century one of the most significant discussion was to find the best way to run democracy.

Anna Freud, that was carrying on and expanding her father’s studies, stated that the best way to protect democracy was to: “Strengthen the ego against the unconscious.” Consequently, the role of psychology changed: the purpose was now to conform society, drive people to accept social rules, in order to repress the unconscious and eventually create the perfect citizen. As a result of that, the challenge was now to find the means to accomplish this task. The first step was the creation of the so called “Psychological helping centres”, established to help war veterans to repress their unconscious fears and recover from the shocks they experienced. The government was worried about the consequences that violent and mentally unstable soldiers could have done to the society. As a second step, the US government decided to open marriage guidance offices and finally to introduce psychological analysis for families. The long-term purpose was to understand “the irrational secret self of the american people”, in order to create model citizens and

customers.

Bernays’ and Anna Freud’s theories were so interesting that even the CIA decided to test them on real patients. Helped by the psychologist Donald Ewen Cameron they tried to control a person’s mind in its totality. Through a method based on shock therapy and drugs administering they attempted to turn the human mind into a “blank paper.” After the human mind was “cleaned” they tried to create new memories and emotions to replace the previous ones. While they managed to wipe out a person’s memory, they were unable to replace with new memories the patients’ mind.
In addition, Bernays brought his own theories to a whole new level.  He applied his new field of “public relations” to a larger scale (marketing, politics), helping to overturn the government of Guatemala and coordinate the “Red Scare” for example.
However, the conclusion was that Anna Freud’s techniques were a failure, as human mind could not be controlled in its totality. After psychoanalyst Greenson failed to treat Marylyn Monroe, that committed suicide, the whole psychoanalysis itself was put into question. One of the strongest opponents to Freud’s ideas was the sociologist Herbert Marcuse. He believed that the inner drive of humans was not inherently bad, a corrupt society made it that way. He firmly thought that the human mind had to be freed from conformity, and that humans should express themselves. That’s why when we refer to him we can speak about “trust”.

In conclusion, it is clear that theorists like Bernays and Anna Freud planted the seeds of modern society, and those seeds have developed. They created a world where individuals are apathetic consumers, contributing to democracy and society just as buyers. Their theories lead to a culture of rampant consumerism and self accomplishment, in which our unconscious is perpetually controlled and manipulated. It’s hard to say if psychoanalysis has more negative sides than positive ones: what is sure is that it radically transformed the society in which everyone of us live.