In this lecture we were introduced to Sigmund Freud who came up with a new controversial theory of psychoanalysis; this was that people aren't as good as they seem and most of our behavior is done because social laws demand it. However, in the unconscious mind humans have repressed animalistic instincts that need to be expressed in some way.
He wrote book studying this theory, including:
- Interpretation of Dreams
- The Unconscious
- The Ego and the ID
- Beyond the Pleasure Principle
After the horror of WW1, Freud said 'he was not surprised, nor should anyone else be, it is the nature of human beings to be violent and due to these suppressed caged instincts they were bound to explode in some way'.
Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew, used this theory in advertising, for example: Smoking was once considered a very manly hobby, and women were frowned upon and disgusted to be seen doing it. Bernays saw this as a massive loss of audience so he staged a parade and tipped off the journalists about it. He paid lots of beautiful, glamourous women to parade down New York smoking. This turned smoking into a symbol of power, freedom and because it was associated with beauty it became a sexy hobby for women.
This was the start of products being bought for symbolic reason such as the illusion of power and status rather than for the products uses. As products became more popular, the companies could afford to mass produce them, this was called Fordism (The first mass product was the Ford car). Once products were mass produced, more jobs became available for people to make them, more work meant better pay for the employees and therefore more disposable income to spend on other mass produced products.
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