True Films: Century of the Self

Century of the Self

The “self” is a recent invention. It arose out of the confluence of many cultural trends, not least, the invention of media. This remarkable BBC four-part series tackles this very heady subject with great intelligence and imagination. It manages to successfully visualize something ghostly abstract, yet one that is at our core (our selves!). Like a good psychology class, after this series you feel you understand yourself a bit better. But even within academic circles the birth of the self remains a fringe idea. I had heard about the series for years from various enthusiasts, but it was unavailable on tape or DVD, either in the US or the UK. And so it still is. But recently a copy has been floating around BitTorrent, so I downloaded it. Took 8 hours with my DSL. It’s well worth the trouble.

— KK