The Hundred Year Ego

It’s 100 years since Sigmund Freud wrote The Ego and the Id, a book that reshaped the way we think about ourselves and the workings of our minds. David Baker explores the ego’s journey over the past century – from the inflated egos of dictators and the music of Hollywood films, to the mind-expanding love-ins of the hippy era and the greed is good ethos of neoliberalism. And, he asks, what can we make of claims that artificial intelligence is developing an ego of its own?

I appeared on this BBC Radio Four Archive Hour programme.