A DANGEROUS METHOD
UK/Canada, 2011, 105 minutes, Colour.
Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbinder, Keira Knightly, Vincent Cassel.
Directed by David Cronenberg.
A Dangerous Method by John Kerr was the title of a book about the therapy methods employed by Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, focusing on the processes of psychoanalysis, the client talking and the therapist listening. The book was used as a basis for a play by Christopher Hampton which he called The Talking Cure.
Christopher Hampton (whose plays and films include Dangerous Liaisons, The Secret Agent, Imagining Argentina, Cheri) has written the screenplay for this film based on his play. It has been directed by David Cronenberg who, for more than thirty years, has made a wide range of films, from horror science-fiction to psychological dramas like Spider, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.
The film has been promoted as dramatizing birth of psychoanalysis or the break between Freud and Jung. This is certainly the case, but there is much more. In fact, the attention is principally on Jung, his ideas, his work and his personal life. While Freud is present, he is seen in conjunction with his friendship for Jung and then their parting of ways. The screenplay reminds us of the differences between them, Jung from Switzerland, Freud from Austria, Jung wealthy, Freud poorer and with a large family, Jung Protestant, Freud Jewish.
It is important to realise that while the action of A Dangerous Method takes place over a ten year period to 1914, Freud was not to die until 1939, exiled from Austria to London. Jung did not die until 1961. Freud still had a great deal to achieve, but Jung’s main life work took place after the action of the film ends.
The other important characters in the film are Jung’s long-suffering and pardoning wife, Emma (Sarah Gadon), as well as Jung’s key patient, Sabina Spielrein, whom he treated, with whom he had an affair, who contributed to ‘freeing’ him from his rather strict, even repressed, persona. Another character is introduced, an eccentric psychological study who advocated a freedom from a morals-bound world, Otto Gross, played by Vincent Cassel.
One thing that should be said, is that the films looks very handsome indeed, recreating the elegant European settings pre-World War I and capitalizing on the scenic beauty of Switzerland.
What does the film have to offer on Freud and on Jung?
As played by Michael Fassbender (rather the opposite of his powerful performance as the sex addict in Shame), Jung is a dignified man, proper in dress and manner, fascinated by the human psyche and the ‘talking cure’ for his patients. He is married and beginning a family, more devoted to his wife than loving her. At this stage of his career, it is the psychoanalysis and its possibilities that interest him and so draw him to Freud, correspondence and, eventually, a visit to Vienna and a 13 hour conversation with the master. Freud respects Jung, seeing him as a kind of surrogate son or nephew.
The complication for Jung’s life is his work with the Russian, Sabina Spielrein. She is played with some force by Keira Knightly, especially in the early therapy scenes where her traumas take physical hold of her, strain, jutting chin, rigidity, and she eventually admits to masochistic feelings derived from her father’s beating her and humiliating her as a child. Nevertheless, she wants to study psychology and become a therapist (which, historically, she did, practising in Russia for almost thirty years before a round-up of Jews and Nazi execution early in World War II).
The further complication for Jung is Sabina’s transference of affections and Jung’s succumbing to her seduction and being transformed by her, worrying about professional ethics, about his wife and her pregnancies, deceiving Freud as to the truth of his relationship.
As played by Viggo Mortensen, Freud is the elder statesman of psychoanalysis, rather sure in his professional activities, his reputation and his ideas. He has a touch of the pompous. Which makes his break with Jung a matter of principle before emotion.
Students of psychology are familiar with Freud’s emphasis on more rigorous scientific methods in his approach to patients, his theories about the sexual origins of human behavior and sexuality in psychological understanding and healing, his excluding of religion and other ‘mystical’ aspects of the psyche from psychology. This is dramatised in several discussion sequences in the film and in the final correspondence. Jung is wary of the pan-sexual approach to personality. He also trusts in ‘the mystical’ and dreams which led him to pursue his work on archetypes.
Audiences not familiar with Freud and Jung except from hearsay may find the film rather difficult as they have to listen to conversations and watch therapy sessions. On the other hand, experts may find themselves arguing with the film’s treatment of particular events or particular issues and psychological niceties. However, the film is not a text book, nor a treatise, but a dramatization of a significant period (rather than their whole life’s work) in Freud’s life and formative years in the life and career of Jung.
It is not often that a mentally stimulating film like this comes along, and it is to be welcomed.
(In 1962, John Huston directed Montgomery Clift in Freud (which was sub-titled, A Secret Passion). An amusing – and more than amusing – flight of fancy had Freud treating Sherlock Holmes and Holmes learning something about detection from psychology in Nicholas Meyer’s The Seven Per Cent Solution (1976). The relationship between Jung and Sabina Spielrein was dramatized in The Soul Keeper (2002), with Iain Glenn as Jung and Emilia Fox as Sabina.)
1. A portrait of Carl Jung, Sabina Spielrein, Sigmund Freud, Emma Jung?
2. The sources for the screenplay, the letters, the books about Jung and Freud? The play, The Talking Cure (from the screenwriter)? The blend of the sources for portraits of Jung and Freud?
3. Christopher Hampton, his play? David Cronenberg, his interest in drama, horror, stories with edge?
4. The titles, The Talking Cure, Freud establishing it, as used by Jung, as experienced by Sabine? Emma not talking? The title of A Dangerous Method – what method? Whose method?
5. The Swiss locations, the lake, the homes, affluent life, the hospitals?
6. The contrast with Vienna, Freud’s home, the trains, poorer background?
7. 1904 to 1913? The beginning of the 20th century? The psychological heritage of the 19th century? Life on the continent of Europe? The Hapsburg empire? The place of the Jews and persecution? Freud’s consciousness about his Jewish background? The contrast with Jung and his wealth, protestant background? The preparation for World War One?
8. The focus on Jung, his age, in the hospital, Emma and her pregnancy, the tension between them, his taking on Sabine as a patient, their meeting, the style of his treatment, listening to her, The Talking Cure? Sitting at the back, noting her reactions? Her body language? The questions – and the insight gained?
9. Sabine and her background, her needs, the reference to Jung, Russian Jewish? Her sessions, willing and unwilling, talking, her fears, her facial tensions, becoming inarticulate? The gradual revelations about her father, his wealth, trade, cruelty? Her attitude towards humiliation? Her being put in the dark, aged four, beaten? Her liking it, the masochistic experiences – leading to ambiguity, shame, erratic behaviour? Yet her desire to study psychology?
10. Jung, the birth of the child, the further pregnancies, the building up of his family, living with Emma – polite, loving, tense? His being very objective in his judgments and expression of them, his austerity? Emma being wealthy, buying the boat, his berth on the ship to New York (in contrast with that of Freud)? A life of comfort?
11. The head of the institution, the interviews with Jung, with Sabine? Jung moving?
12. Jung’s admiration for Freud, for his methods, the correspondence, the eventual visit, Jung and his eating a lot – and the large family around the table? Jung and Freud talking for thirteen hours?
13. Freud, his age, the success of his career, his critique of other methods, the development of psychoanalysis, his theories and conclusions, his books? The Talking Cure? His scientific method, belief in science? His emphasis on sexuality – as the basis for behaviour? His listening to Jung’s dreams, interpreting them correctly? (The irony of Freud’s continuously smoking cigars, cutting off the tips – and his Jewish background?)
14. Freud and his theories, the emphasis on science, no religious themes, no mysticism? The difference from Jung? Jung and his belief in science, but going beyond, the transcendent, its being judged mysticism?
15. Jung and his dreams, their interpretation, his relationship with his wife, wanting to be free, sexually free? The beginning of the affair, his initiative, Sabine’s initiative? The effect on him, passionate, liberating? Sabine and her transference? Jung and his consciously lying to Freud, not wanting to blame himself? The effect of the affair, prolonged, the passion? The decision to break, Sabine’s reaction? Jung not wanting to be her doctor anymore, her paying him the money as a patient? The effect on Sabine?
16. Sabine, the years of studies, bringing her thesis, Jung willing to check it? The emotional tangles? The letters to Freud, Freud not believing Sabine? Sabine demanding that Jung write to Freud and tell the truth? Jung’s apology?
17. Jung’s dreams and his escaping the master? The oedipal background? Freud and Jung going to New York?
18. The frank discussions between the two, the build-up to the break, the letters and their effect? Jung and his plea for a more open approach? Freud remaining stubborn and refusing it?
19. The film, portraits of the two men? Jung not on his pedestal? Freud and his pomposity? Sabine, the success of her studies, the end of the affair, her marriage to a Russian, her return to Russia, her successful work with children and psychology? Her being rounded up with the Jews and being shot at the beginning of World War Two?
20. The film’s helping audiences to understand the different approaches, the origins of their theories, the breakthroughs? Their contribution to 21st century psychology and psychoanalysis?
21. The further information, Freud living for almost another thirty years but exiled from Vienna by the Nazis? Jung living another fifty years and developing his psychology and insights, work on archetypes? Sabine and her success?
22. An example of a film that can explore characters as well as theories?
