The Century of the Self | Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering (Episode 4)

Episode 4: In part four the main subjects are Philip Gould, a political strategist, and Matthew Freud, a PR consultant and the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. In the 1990s, they were instrumental to bringing the Democratic Party in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power through use of the focus group, originally invented by psychoanalysts employed by US corporations to allow consumers to express their feelings and needs, just as patients do in psychotherapy.

This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self. Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products. Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people but to develop a new way of controlling them.

Curtis ends by saying that, "Although we feel we are free, in reality, we—like the politicians—have become the slaves of our own desires," and compares Britain and America to 'Democracity', an exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair created by Edward Bernays.

Contributors on this series:
Dr Alfred Pritz, President, World Council for Psychotherapy
Countess Erzie Károlyi
Edward Bernays (interviewed 1991)
Pat Jackson, PR adviser and colleague of Edward Bernays
Peter Strauss, employee of Edward Bernays 1948–52
Peter Solomon, investment banker, Lehman Brothers
Stuart Ewen, historian of public relations
Dr Ernst Federn, Viennese psychoanalyst
Anne Bernays, daughter of Edward Bernays
George Gallup Jr., pollster
Marcel Faust, resident of Vienna, 1930s
Prof. Martin Bergmann, psychoanalyst, US Army 1943–45
Ellen Herman, historian of American psychology
Anton Freud, Anna Freud's nephew
Michael Burlingham, Dorothy Burlingham's grandson
Dr Robert Wallerstein, psychoanalyst, Menninger Clinic 1949–66
Dr Harold Blum, psychoanalyst
Dr Neil Smelser, political theorist and psychoanalyst
Fritz Gehagen, psychoanalyst and employee of Ernest Dichter
Hedy Dichter, wife of Ernest Dichter
Bill Schlackman, psychologist and employee of Ernest Dichter
Larry Tye, journalist, Boston Globe
Howard Hunt, Head of CIA Operation, Guatemala, 1954
Dr Heinz Lehmann, psychiatrist and colleague of Dr Ewen Cameron
Laughlin Taylor, assistant to Dr Ewen Cameron 1958–60
Linda MacDonald, patient of Dr Ewen Cameron
Dr John Gittinger, Chief Psychologist, CIA, 1950–74
Celeste Holm, actress and former patient of Dr Ralph Greenson
Dr Leo Rangell, Los Angeles psychoanalyst
Dr Alexander Lowen, experimental psychotherapist, 1950s
Morton Herskowitz, student of Wilhelm Reich 1949–52
Lore Reich Rubin, Wilhelm Reich's daughter
Robert Pardun, student activist, 1960s
Herbert Marcuse (interviewed 1978)
Stew Albert, founding member of Youth International Party
Michael Murphy, founder of Esalen Institute
George Leonard, leader, Encounter Group, Esalen Institute, 1960s
Dr William Coulson, leader, Nuns' Encounter Group
Daniel Yankelovich, Yankelovich Partners Market Research Inc.
Werner Erhard, founder of Erhard Seminars Training
Jesse Kornbluth, journalist, New Times, 1970s
Jerry Rubin, founder of Youth International Party (interviewed 1978)
Jay Ogilvy, Director of Psychological Values Research, SRI International, 1979–88
Amina Marie Spengler, Director, Psychological Values Research Programme, 1978–86
Jeffrey Bell, speech-writer to Ronald Reagan, 1976–81
Christine MacNulty, program manager, Values and Lifestyles Team, SRI International 1978–81
Robert Reich, economist and member of Clinton cabinet 1993–97
Matthew Wright, tabloid journalist 1993–2000
Mario Cuomo, Governor, New York 1982–95 (archive)
Philip Gould, Strategy Advisor for New Labour election campaign 1997
Dick Morris, Strategy Advisor to President Clinton 1994–96
Mark Penn, Market Researcher for President Clinton 1995–2000
Douglas Schoen, Market Researcher for President Clinton 1995–2000
James Bennet, Washington correspondent, The New York Times
Derek Draper, assistant to Peter Mandelson 1992–95