Engineering Consent:
Edward Bernays, Psychoanalysis and the Hack of the Human Mind.
Thursday, April 9th, April 23rd, and April 30th from 6 to 7:30PM
On Zoom (Ticket Required)
Sponsored by the Forward Party of Sacramento
Reserve Tickets Here
Edward Bernays, Psychoanalysis and the Hack of the Human Mind.
Thursday, April 9th, April 23rd, and April 30th from 6 to 7:30PM
On Zoom (Ticket Required)
Sponsored by the Forward Party of Sacramento
Reserve Tickets Here
Join John Thor Cornelius, MD and author Matthew Stanley as discussant for a 3-part Zoom Series Focusing on Edward Bernays' hack of the human mind, and what we can do about it.
Summary: In 1955, Edward Bernays, a self-professed liberal, supporter of feminism and member of the NAACP, published a book titled The Engineering of Consent. In it he chronicled his playbook to influence America as one of the first PR men in the United States. He used the technique to become the father of modern public relations, gaining vast wealth while working with major corporations, political parties and presidents.
Leaning on the understanding of the human unconscious he gleaned from his uncle, Sigmund Freud, he laid out a blueprint for how a "powerful and select few" should influence the behavior of the masses and thus maintain democracy. His archives, supported by modern psychoanalytic ideas and neuroscientific evidence, reveal how his method manipulates the human mind by bypassing rational thought- a mechanism that preys on our insecurities but manipulates our natural tendencies to seek support. The ‘hack’ sells products, tells us who to hate, who to be afraid of, and who to love - and it works, again, and again, and again via its influence over the fundamental unconscious machinery of who we are.
Yet the playbook, run increasingly frequently by CEO’s and politicians since he developed it, has a dark side. Even as it tenaciously steamrolls rational thought, it destabilizes the human mind – even the minds of the ‘select’ who seek to use it. It allowed a liberal to think he can destroy democracy to ‘save’ it. It allows a health advocate to sell deadly products. It gets judges to think they are ‘incorruptible’ even as they take bribes. It influences us to vote against our better judgement and interests. For Bernays, it paved the way for the genocide of his own people and brought the nation he loved to a hairsbreadth of nuclear Armageddon.
And it’s going on right now. . . a lot.
John Thor Cornelius, MD
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Join John Thor Cornelius, a medical doctor, psychoanalyst, writer and educator, for a 3-part online series decoding this playbook with Matthew Stanley, author and philosopher, to act as discussant. To help us, we will use curated podcasts that synthesize material from multiple sources before and between meetings, with primary sources available for review.
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Note:
1) Ground Rules for Participation: Please be aware that while this topic is central to our current civic life, the focus of these presentations is an examination of the general process of influence and its impact on our capacity to think as a group. To maintain a productive space, we require participants to agree to the following:
- Focus on the Mechanism, Not the Politics: We are here to analyze how consent is engineered, not to "grind axes" or debate modern political grievances from unitary perspectives. If you think the the problem is "all over there" you should probably listen to the talk more closely.
- No Malignant "Othering": The goal of this series is to deconstruct how division is manufactured, not to participate in it. While we will need to use examples that includes groups, we require that everyone refrain from malignant "othering"—the process of shaming, blaming, or demonizing specific groups or individuals, left or right of the political spectrum.
- Embrace the Stage of Concern: We ask that all discussions be approached with curiosity, respect, and a willingness to step back and look at the whole picture.
- Those unable to follow these ground rules will be ejected from the zoom meeting immediately without warning or discussion.
2) Podcasts: Please listen to our curated podcast before each session that is intended to synthesize multiple sources to help introduce listeners to the material covered each session. Each podcast is generated using AI, but has been reviewed for "good enough" accuracy by Dr. Cornelius. We can have a discussion about AI and its implications another time. Primary sources are listed in the podcast and are noted at the end of this webpage for those who want the information from the primary sources.
3) Session Format: Each session will include a 45 minute presentation by Dr. Cornelius followed by a conversation with discussant Matthew Stanley and our audience.
Session 1: The Biology of Influence
Date/Time: April 9th 6-7:30PM
Podcast: (Please check back for the link)
We begin by introducing us to Edward Bernays, identifying his theories as well as the biological underpinnings of the propaganda model. This will include an introduction to psychology and brain science. We’ll review the way Bernays recognized how once you can "understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses," you can "pull the wires which control the public mind".
Session 2: The Illusion of Choice
Date/Time: April 23rd, 6-7:30PM
Podcast: (Please check back for the link)
In this session we analyze the power of the "Torches of Freedom" campaign and how it crystalized Bernay’s approach to generate an illusion of choice, targeting our deep unconscious fears and desires in such a way that we don’t consciously recognize the manipulation. We will also explore Melanie Klien's Paranoid Schizoid position and it's collapse of rational thought.
Session 3: The Brink of Armageddon
Date/Time: April 30th, 6-7:30PM
Podcast: (Please check back for the link)
In the final session we begin by examining the crucial role Bernays played in the 1954 overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Guatemala. Employed by the United Fruit Company, he applied his technique on a massive scale. Utilizing the terror of a "Soviet Beachhead" and the seduction of a "Liberation" narrative (via the fake "Voice of Liberation" radio) Bernays enabled United Fruit to maintain economic dominance but created a disaster that has haunted the world for decades. This includes the germination of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the chronic destabilization of Central and South America.
We will close with a discussion of how these same weapons of mass influence are now turned inward within the United States, fueling a psychic civil war where each side justifies its actions while being context blind to its own role in the conflict. And hopefully, we will explore the painful necessity of Right Hemisphere thinking, the potential of principled action and develop what psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott called the Capacity for Concern as a possible path forward.
Key References & Recommended Reading
This series is informed by podcasts and discussions based on the following works:
Bion, W. R. (1962). Learning from experience. Basic Books.
McGilchrist, I. (2021). The matter with things: Our brains, our delusions, and the unmaking of the world. Perspectiva.
Ogden, T. H. (1986). The matrix of the mind: Object relations and the psychoanalytic dialogue. Jason Aronson.
Schlesinger, S. C., & Kinzer, S. (2005). Bitter fruit: The story of the American coup in Guatemala (Rev. and expanded ed.). Harvard University Press.
Tye, L. (1998). The father of spin: Edward L. Bernays and the birth of public relations. Crown Publishers.
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational processes and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development. International Universities Press.