A Dangerous Method

On some levels it works really well, but on others it appears revisionist. As if only the early psycho therapeutic world was just composed of Freud and Jung. In reality there was a multi tussle between Adler, Jones, Freud, Ferenczi, Jung, Stekel and numerous others.

Otto Gross gets a look in, but only to highlight the need for more promiscuity. In terms of a bio pic, the Grand daddy of the drop out, deserves a film all to himself and the snap shot in this film does not do justice. Otto Gross, the son of Hans Gross, was the perfect child, hammered into submission into a carbon copy, he took to the Adlerian polarity and rebelled into creating the first stirrings of emancipation for all. Unfortunately it was the expense of his own family and as he fought out the battle with his father's domination he began to self medicate. A theme only lightly touched upon in the film. For those who are interested it is well worth looking him up, a forgotten therapist who worked to influence, Muhsham and Landauer, also influencing Kafka, DH Lawrence, Reich and the whole field of sexual liberation.

Jung is portrayed well by Fassbinder, but he lacks a dynamic, a will to power. His ideas arrive into being through conversation and speculation rather than through experience. Telepathy, ancestor myths, collective unconscious, folk memories, the occult all arise without any precedent.

Freud appears to be infused with some human qualities in the film. The man who launched a new paradigm, but sailing to no known destination. The film is dominated by him and his presence.

Spielrein is one of the many victims of the era an the focus of the film, details Stekel's contribution to the discipline, an area that Jung seemingly shied away from. Stekel looked at female sexuality and explored the depths of pathological sexualities and fetishes. Here we see Keira playing the woman committed to a more enlightened asylum, run by Jung, as he falls for his patient. She represents the untamed world, whilst he is bound by the more formal discipline of the world of wealth, represented by the solidity of his wife's money.

The iron bound strictures which surrounded this world are apparent and they keep everyone trapped in codes. The sexual preferences of Spielrein and her need to return to the sites of her child humiliation are well represented and provide the film with some titillation. The various splits between Jews and Aryans are detailed. Jung was later to embrace National Socialism.

The film however is slow paced and could have been far racier had it concentrated on the clash between the elder and younger Gross and the flight to find freedom. As it stands it is interesting, slow and provides a certain myopic window onto the early strands of psychotherapy. A bigger story however is waiting in the wings.

This is the story of the relationship between three of the founders of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Sabina Naftulovna Speilrein.

Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly) was born in the Russian district of Rostov-on-Don on 7 November 1885. She was "committed" to Zurich's "Burgholzi Psychiatric Clinic" by her Uncle where she came under the "care" of Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Jung was mentored by Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen).

The film progresses at a very slow pace, and it took all my determination not to press the fast forward button. You also have to remember that the subject matter can be somewhat dry, even for me and it's my specialist subject.

Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel) is added to the mix, though briefly. Other than the debauched Gross giving Jung "permission" to have an extra marital affair, there appears to be no reason for his inclusion. There was much more to Gross than portrayed.

I am not a fan of Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men: First Class) but his portrayal of Jung is excellent, and once you get over the fluctuating accent of Keira Knightly (Atonement) - it fluctuates between an attempted Russian to American and back (not bad for a UK born woman) - she gives an interesting performance as Speilrein. The tour-de-force is from Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A History Of Violence) as Freud, his soft spoken but determined portrayal brought some life to a man who is often seen as cold and distant. Mortensen brings a humanity to the portrayal of Freud which is frequently missing (or ignored) by biographers and other actors.

This was an unexpected biopic from David Cronenberg (Scanners, A History of Violence).

I did one of my dissertations on the founders of psychoanalysis when I was a student so I was very familiar with Spielrein and the rumours that surrounded her relationship with Jung, but they were only rumours until a Freudian came across the letters and decided to "read between the lines". There is no proof of an inappropriate relationship between Jung and Spielrein.

Freud falls in and out of favour continuously, mainly because of his insistence that everything was sexually related. This may well have been because Freud had "mommy issues" and, if we are being honest, these issues had issues of their own.

Speilrein studied under both Jung and Freud, and her theories and papers, though initially dismissed by both men, were later adapted into their own work. She suffered as a psychoanalyst due to the fact that the two men who mentored her were at war for control and domination of the field and she was in the middle - in order to get at the other (a frontal attack would have caused more harm to the area of psychoanalysis) they each took turns in negating her work.

It is now acknowledged that it is more than likely Speilrein's problems were due to the abuse (physical, emotional and sexual) of her father and other men in her family, such as the Uncle who had her committed. Speilrein qualified as a doctor and then became a psychoanalyst. It is known that a lot her work was influenced by her own introspective experiences as a child and an adult.

Sabina Spielrein tends to be little known, especially in comparison to the likes of Jung and Freud, even though she was one of the first female psychoanalysts.

Speilrein returned to her home in Rostov-on-Don where she opened her own psychoanalytical clinic.

On the 11th and 12th of August 1942 the inhabitants were rounded up by the Nazis and massacred. More than 27,000 people were murdered. Speilrein and her two daughters were amongst the many woman and children taken into a synagogue and shot.

The movie has English subtitles, English Soundtrack, English Audio Description. There is commentary by David Cronenberg, and a "Making of" mini documentary.

Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" is mainly about the relationship between two early giants of psychoanalysis, Freud and Jung, played by Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbinder . This is captured in some witty, often humorous and well-acted scenes which made me want to find out more about both the men and their theories. Freud hopes that Jung, almost two decades his junior, will carry on the torch of his controversial ideas on the sexual basis of mental disorder, but cannot tolerate Jung's tendency to follow his own independent line, including telepathy and psychic powers, which Freud finds simply potty, not to mention the irritation of having his authority challenged.

A further complication is Jung's treatment with his new "talking cure" of the hysterical young Russian Jewess Sabina Spielrein, who recovers to become a celebrated psychoanalyst in her own right, but not before providing a fatal attraction for Jung.

The photography is beautiful, with many scenes of Swiss lakes or striking statues against a background of Viennese palaces. The large amount of "walking and talking" reflects the fact this film is based on a stage play by the ubiquitous Christopher Hampton. I also liked the attention to the period detail of the early 1900s: Jung's wealthy wife works on her embroidery the day after giving birth to her first child, while a buxom wet nurse suckles the infant. Freud's identification with Spielrein, as a Jew, and growing awareness of Jung as an Aryan, foreshadows the horrors of the Holocaust.

The quality of the acting is mainly excellent, with Fassbinder in particular showing a clear progression from controlled, ambitious up-and-coming physician, to a wreck on the verge of a nervous breakdown himself, troubled by dreams of carnage which we know are remarkably prescient on the verge of World War 1. Keira Knightley's portrayal of madness in the opening scenes seems grotesquely exaggerated, and her recovery remarkably rapid - she is most frightening when "sane" but thwarted in love.

Although neither a great film nor as good as it might have been, overall this is a well-made contribution to a fascinating theme. At 1 hour 40 minutes, it avoids the error of going on too long.