Edward Bernays and the making of public relations

JUL 22 2026

A profile of Bernays, Freud's nephew, who took psychoanalytic ideas out of the consulting room and applied them to selling goods and shaping political opinion. His insight was that people can be moved more reliably through desire and identity than through argument, which is why his campaigns sold a feeling and let the product follow. It covers both the commercial work and the later political consequences.