Edward Bernays

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Edward Louis Bernays
Edward Bernays.jpg
in the early 1920s
Born November 22, 1891(1891-11-22)
Vienna, Austria
Died March 9, 1995 (age 103)
Cambridge (MA), United States
Occupation Public relations, advertising

Edward Louis Bernays (November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995) is considered one of the fathers of the field of public relations along with Ivy Lee. As a member of the Creel Committee, he helped U.S. President Woodrow Wilson propagandize in support of allied war aims during World War I. He went on to design PR campaigns for politicians and companies such as General Motors, Procter & Gamble and American Tobacco. Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious.

He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.[1]

Life and Influences

Born 1891 in Vienna to Jewish parents, Bernays was nephew to psychoanalyst pioneer Sigmund Freud. His father was Ely Bernays, brother of Freud's wife Martha Bernays. His mother was Freud's sister, Anna. [2] In 1892 his family moved to New York City. In 1912 he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in agriculture, but chose journalism as his first career. He married Doris E. Fleischman in 1922.

As well as being influenced by his uncle Sigmund's ideas of the Unconscious, Bernays applied the ideas of the French writer Gustave LeBon, the originator of Crowd psychology, and of Wilfred Trotter, who promoted similar ideas to the English speaking world in his famous book, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. Bernays refers to these two names in his writings. Trotter, who was a head and neck surgeon at University College Hospital, London, read Freud's works, and it was he who introduced w:Wilfred Bion, whom he lived and worked with, to Freud's ideas. When Freud fled Germany for London at the start of World War II, Trotter became his personal physician, and Bion and Ernest Jones became key members of the Freudian Psychoanalysis movement in England, and would go on to develop the field of Group Dynamics, largely associated with the Tavistock Institute where many of Freud's followers worked. Thus ideas of Group Psychology and Psychoanalysis came together in London around World War II.

Bernays' public relations efforts helped popularize Freud's theories in the United States. Bernays also pioneered the PR industry's use of psychology and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns. "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind," he wrote, "is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits." (Propaganda, 2005 ed., p. 71.) He called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the "engineering of consent."

In 1913, Bernays started his career as Press Agent, counseling to theaters, concerts and the ballet. In 1917, American President Woodrow Wilson engaged George Creel and realizing one of his ideas, he founded the "Committee on Public Information." Bernays, Carl Byoir and John Price Jones worked together to influence public opinion towards supporting American participation in World War I.

In 1919, Bernays opened an office as Public Relations Counselor in New York. He held the first Public Relations course at the University of New York in 1923, publishing the first groundbreaking book on public relations entitled Crystallizing Public Opinion that same year.

The Third Party Technique

One of Bernays' favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of "third party authorities" to plead his clients' causes. "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway", he said. In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat heavy breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast.

Bernays also drew upon his uncle Sigmund's psychoanalytic ideas for the benefit of commerce in order to promote products as diverse as cigarettes, soap and books.

Bernays's clients included President Calvin Coolidge, Procter & Gamble, CBS, the American Tobacco Company, General Electric and Dodge Motors. Beyond his contributions to these famous and powerful clients, Bernays revolutionized public relations by combining traditional press agentry with the techniques of psychology and sociology to create what one writer has called "the science of ballyhoo."

PR industry historian Scott Cutlip describes Bernays as "perhaps public relations' most fabulous and fascinating individual, a man who was bright, articulate to excess, and most of all, an innovative thinker and philosopher of this vocation that was in its infancy when he opened his office in New York in June 1919."

Self-promotion

Much of Bernays's reputation today stems from his persistent public relations campaign to build his own reputation as "America's No. 1 Publicist." During his active years, many of his peers in the industry were offended by Bernays's constant self-promotion. According to Cutlip, "Bernays was a brilliant person who had a spectacular career, but, to use an old-fashioned word, he was a braggart."

"When a person would first meet Bernays," says Cutlip, "it would not be long until Uncle Sigmund would be brought into the conversation. His relationship with Freud was always in the forefront of his thinking and his counseling." According to Irwin Ross, another writer, "Bernays liked to think of himself as a kind of psychoanalyst to troubled corporations." In the early 1920s, Bernays arranged for the US publication of an English-language translation of Freud's General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. In addition to publicizing Freud's ideas, Bernays used his association with Freud to establish his own reputation as a thinker and theorist—a reputation that was further enhanced when Bernays authored several landmark books of his own, most notably Crystallizing Public Opinion, Propaganda and The Engineering of Consent.

Bernays defined the profession of "counsel on public relations" as a "practicing social scientist" whose "competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields." To assist clients, PR counselors used "understanding of the behavioral sciences and applying them - sociology, social psychology, anthropology, history, etc." In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays argued that the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society: "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

Bernays's celebration of propaganda helped define public relations, but it didn't win the industry many friends. In a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described Bernays and Ivy Lee as "professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism and self-interest." And history itself showed the flaw in Bernays's claim that "manipulation of the masses" is natural and necessary in a democratic society. The fascist rise to power in Germany demonstrated that propaganda could be used to subvert democracy as easily as it could be used to "resolve conflict."

In his autobiography, titled Biography of an Idea, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where "Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the best Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign." Bernays is held in high standards even today, and was even named as one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century.[3]

Source: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.

In 2006 a Der Spiegel journalist interviewed the founder of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, Harold Burson, and asked him about the role of Edward Bernays in shaping the course of modern PR. "Bernays thought that he could control public opinion. His methodology, of course, was fundamental. Most of the things we do today were identified by Bernays 80 years ago. He had brilliant ideas. I met him a few times, but didn’t like him. He was one of the most egocentric people I have ever met," Burson said.[4]

Books by Bernays

  • Edward Bernays, The Broadway Anthology (1917, co-author)
  • Edward Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion, Kessinger Publishing, October 2004. ISBN 1417915080 (First published 1923)
  • An Outline of Careers; a practical guide to achievement by thirty-eight eminent Americans (1927)
  • Edward Bernays, A Public Relations Counsel (1927)
  • Verdict of public opinion on propaganda (1927)
  • Edward Bernays, Propaganda, Ig Publishing, September 2004. ISBN 0970312598 (First published 1928 by Horace Liveright, ISBN 978-0804615112).
  • Edward Bernays, This Business of Propaganda (1928)
  • Universities--pathfinders in public opinion (1937)
  • Careers for men; a practical guide to opportunity in business, written by thirty-eight successful Americans (1939)
  • Speak up for democracy; what you can do--a practical plan of action for every American citizen (1940)
  • Future of private enterprise in the post-war world (1942)
  • Democratic leadership in total war (1943)
  • Psychological blueprint for the peace--Canada, U.S.A. (1944)
  • Public relations (1945)
  • Take your place at the peace table (1945)
  • What the British think of us; a study of British hostility to America and Americans and its motivation, with recommendations for improving Anglo-American relations (1950, co-author with his wife Doris Fleischman)
  • Edward Bernays, The Engineering of Consent, University of Oklahoma Press, First edition January 1955. ASIN B0007DOM5E
  • Your future in public relations (1961)
  • Edward Bernays, Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of a Public Relations Counsel, Simon and Schuster, January 1965. ASIN B0007DFE5G
  • Case for Reappraisal of U.S. Overseas Information Policies and Programs (Special Study) (1970), by Edward L. Bernays and Burnet Hershey (editors)
  • Edward Bernays, Emergence of the public relations counsel: Principles and recollections , The President and Follows of Harvard College, January 1971; ASIN B00073BAI6
  • Edward Bernays, The future of public relations, January 1972. ASIN B00073BAH2
  • Edward Bernays, The Later Years: Public Relations Insights 1956-1986, Howard Penn Hudson Associates, June 1986. ISBN 0961764201
  • Edward Bernays, Public Relations, Kessinger Publishing, November 2004. ISBN 1419173383

Books about Bernays & PR

  • Larry Tye, The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations Crown, July 1998. ISBN 0517704358; Paperback reprint Owl Books, September 2002 ISBN 0805067892
  • Scott Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations: A History, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994. ISBN 0805814647
  • Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin, Basic Books, November 1998. ISBN 0465061796 (Paperback); ISBN 0465061680 (Hardback).

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

References

  1. ↑ PR! A Social History Of Spin -Chapter 1
  2. ↑ Edward Bernays
  3. ↑ Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin] (New York, NY: Perseus Books, 1996), p. 6.
  4. ↑ Nils Klawitter, "Master of Deception", Der Spiegel, July 31, 2006, p. 72.

External links

Wikipedia also has an article on Edward Bernays. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL. <tdo>search_term=Edward Bernays</tdo>


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