The invention of public relations

Psychology fascinates me and I'd study it if I could find the time.

I use it in my work every day, after all. In graphic design you have to consider how an audience will react to a piece of design or advertising - you have to 'get into the mind of the consumer', so to speak. This is similar for PR, which aims to develop understanding and influence opinion.

Having begun reading some of Sigmund Freud's work again recently I discovered that it was his American nephew, Edward Bernays, who invented the PR profession in the 1920s.

He developed Freud's ideas to find ways to manipulate the masses by probing the unconscious mind and showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion. He used every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to the eroticisation of the motorcar.

So, did Edward Bernays really invent the public relations profession? Surely there is evidence of PR before the 1920s?

After all, PR seems to be a natural and recurring element of human social interaction.

You could probably say that PR is both old and young. It is ancient in its foundations, rooted in the earliest interactions of people in societies long gone. It is contemporary in its expression as one of society's emerging professions.

What we now call public relations is an essential and natural aspect of human society. It has occurred throughout history. It has been part of societies separated by miles and centuries. Whenever we look at social interaction, we find elements of today's public relations practice: information, persuasion, reconciliation, and cooperation.

Therefore, is it really fair to say that Edward Bernay's invented PR? Or, did he make the unconscious masses believe that he did so, and ingeniously take the credit? That would be more in keeping with his illustrious uncle, for sure.

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