Have you ever heard of Edward Bernays? If you answered no, you are part of the majority. Bernays has fallen into obscurity while knowledge of his uncle Sigmund Freud persists.

Yet, some would argue that his mark on our world was as great, if not greater, than Freud. His ideas were inspired by his uncle, but he was the first to apply Freudian theory to public policy, advertising, and control of the masses in general.

There was an excellent BBC documentary, by Adam Curtis, on him and the other members of the Freud family. Here is the first episode. If you follow it back to google video, you will find the other 3 episodes. Very enlightening. You can see that certain aspects of our current society that we take for granted were architected by Bernays. There is even the suggestion that his books inspired Goebbels. So here is the clip: