Dangerous Method Critique - Essay Example

Outline Thesis ment: A Dangerous method is a movie based on a book. In relation to three books, this paper will present how the passionate relationship Carl Jung had with Sigmund Freud eventually resulted to psychoanalysis. 1. Introduction 2. Movie overview 3. Movie Analysis 4. Conclusion 5. Work cited Dangerous Method Introduction Dangerous Method is a historical movie based on a non-fiction book “A Most Dangerous Method” written by Kerr John in 1993. It is a drama by genre, produced and directed by David Cronenberg in 2011. Christopher Hampton adapted the screenplay from his stage play, The Talking Cure cast in 2002. The starring of the movie includes Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Vigo Mortensen, and Vincent Cassel. The movie is an early 20th century story, and the storyline revolves around Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein,Vigo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross and Sarah Gadon as Emmah Jung. A Dangerous method is a movie based on a book. In relation to three books, this paper will present how the passionate relationship Carl Jung had with Sigmund Freud eventually resulted to psychoanalysis. Movie overview In the movie Sabina Spielren is a young woman from Russia, who suffers from hysteria related to psychological problems. The woman had experienced a difficult past and her psychological problems link to her childhood where she had a violent father. The young woman is however, highly ambitious and intelligent and aspires to be a Doctor and a psychiatrist in the future. On arrival in Switzerland from Russia, Dr. Carl Jung based in a Zurich hospital takes her in and hospitalizes her (Kerr 14). Dr Jung has just started using a talking cure method of dealing with psychological problems, designed by Dr Sigmund Freud. He decides to use it on Sabina. Freud becomes Jung’s mentor, and they develop a father-son relationship. Freud is proud of Jung and sees him as a likely successor of his work. With time as Dr Jung talks to Sabina, he discovers that her condition associates with her childhood experiences with her father. As a child, she felt humiliated and sexual aroused when her short-tempered father took off all her clothes and spanked her. Her mother was also unfaithful to her father, and she felt her father’s abuse was a way to release her anger (Freud 25). The knowledge that she did not deserve such a punishment, together with the abuse that humiliated her, worsened her condition. Doctor Jung also discovers that Sabina comes from an affluent Jewish family in Russia, which managed to educate her well. Sabina has ambitions to study medicine and become a psychiatric doctor. The head of hospital together with Dr Jung recognize her intelligence, and allow her to use their equipments to learn. She assists them in experiments on psychoanalysis and learns a lot about psychological problems (Kerr 32). As Sabina’s awareness becomes sharp, Dr Jung finds a liking for her and sees her as a kind person who has a unique perspective in life. The two get attracted to each other, and as the attraction grows, Dr Jung finds it difficult to resist the idea of having an affair with a patient. He also sees it as breaking of medical taboos, which condemn the act of having sex with a patient. Dr. Jung is a married to an aristocratic wife, Emmah Jung, and he is guilty but devoted to her at the same time. Eventually they fall in love and Sabina loses her virginity to Dr Jung. In their affair, Jung starts the habit of spanking Sabina. They become so close to each other, and Dr Jung becomes an advisor to her dissertation. As time goes by, Dr. Jung and Dr. Freud disagree and become rivals. Dr. Jung’s comments that the talking cure can only detect the psychological problem and not cure it, fuels this rivalry. Dr Jung names the method psychoanalysis, but Freud thinks that using O to make it psychoanalysis is better (Kerr 64). Finally, Dr Jung attempts to break off from the relationship and decides to revert it to the doctor and patient. Sabina decides to inform Dr Freud for help. She forces Dr Jung to tell her colleague the truth or damage his public image. With the rift between the two, Dr Freud uses this knowledge to frustrate Jung. The work Jung has planned to publish contains theories that go against Freud. The friendship between the two men ends and Sabina leaves them and marries a physician from Russia (Kerr 210). Movie Analysis The movie contains explicit scenes and is full of ideas about sex. Some scenes are provocative to the viewer with ideas full of erotic power. However, the movie shows the link and relationship between sex and thinking. It shows how the mind can enslave the body to fall into temptations and be the master that tells the body to resist or get off from temptations and desires. The film shows how the subconscious mind works. The way it represses and tries top suppress feelings and desires. Most of the scenes in the film are quite clinical. For example, the scenes that show Jung and Sabina having sex were so clinical, that one could note them observing themselves, and seeming interested in how their reactions to the unfolding events would be. The film comes out as an adventure movie, with the discoveries the two doctors and the patient are thriving to uncover. The three are in a scientific discovery process, and their relationship entangles their work. Sabina relies on Dr Jung who is her advisor in her dissertation. On the hand, Dr Jung is trying to use Dr Freud’s work on the talking cure to help psychological patient, Sabina included. At one time, Dr Jung and Sabina travel to Austria to see Dr Freud to try to unravel the psychoanalysis technique. Sabina Freud and Jung find themselves in an expedition into an unconscious uncharted territory. Jung and Sabina take risks in having an affair. There is the risk of Jung losing his profession because of having sex with patients, and the risk of losing his wife when she discovers the affair. Sabina finally leaves Jung and marries a physician from Russia. This together with Dr Freud’s plans to damage the work of his mentee leaves one with a feeling of adventure. The movie also has a lot of drama and actually makes it pass out as a drama. From Sabina’s hysterical bouts when she was leaving Russia to Zurich to Jung’s rivalry with Freud. Sabina’s disorder makes her startlingly violent and turns her into a wreck even in moments when there is relative calm. The twists from calmness to sudden spurts of violence, brings out the drama, which suits the title of the movie Dangerous Method. Tension between Jung and Freud grows as their ideas conflict with Freud insisting that in every neurosis, sex is an underlying factor while Jung totally disagrees with most of Freud’s Pragmatism. Jung shows interest in spiritualism and occult while Freud totally disagrees with his ideologies. Freud believes that sexual repression is the source of neurosis, which contributed significantly in development of psychiatry as a medical field. Off course, Jung does not believe in such (Young-Eisendrath et al 56). More drama unfolds as Sabina and Jung discover the depth of feelings both at work and in the bedroom and its effect on Jung’s profession. The drama becomes more exciting when Jung and Sabina fall out and Sabina seeks for help from Freud. Jung’s profession at this point hangs in a balance because the two can decide to damage her image of sleeping with a patient. Freud finds a perfect opportunity to bully Jung who he feels has used his medical works yet he cannot respect him. The drama around the three ends when Sabina leaves the two men and marries a physician from Russia her home country. The movie has also revealed an uncanny mood of horror in the movie. The movie has its basis on the early years of the twentieth century and focuses mainly on Switzerland and Austria with less of Russia. The movie revolves around friendship between Dr Jung and Dr Freud who shape the life of Sabina, a mental patient who has ambitions of becoming a psychiatrist. The two men shape her career and manage to become a psychoanalyst. The producer has managed to capture the way of life depicted in the early twentieth century, with the dress code and accent. He captivates the viewer with the slight humor contained in the movie particularly in scenes involving Jung and Freud. The movie however, appears quite talky and conservative, which should have been limited. The viewer also feels like the movie loses focus as it progresses particularly when Jung and Sabina’s affair takes center stage. The ideas seem to shift and focus more on the affair and the rest of the characters become less in appearance. The movie is at times slow and rambles but it has managed to capture the difficult aspect of psychoanalysis on film. It has also managed to show lives and minds of three complicated people. The producer has managed to bring out some horror aspect. The viewer can feel some invisible monsters within the souls of the three main characters. Keira Knightley, playing as Sabina, has managed to bring out some horror aspect especially in her facial expressions through out her psychological turmoil. Her screams and kicks while being carried to the treatment room of Dr Jung explore the aspect of this genre. Conclusion In conclusion, Dangerous Method is a historical movie based on a book, A Most Dangerous Method released in 1993. It is a drama by genre, produced and directed by David Cronenberg in 2011. Christopher Hampton adapted the screenplay from his stage play, The Talking Cure cast in 2002. The starring of the movie includes Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Vigo Mortensen, and Vincent Cassel. The movie is an early 20th century story and the storyline revolves around Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, Vigo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross and Sarah Gadon as Emmah Jung. Sabina Spielren is a young woman from Russia, who suffers from hysteria related to psychological problems. Dr. Carl Jung based in a Zurich hospital takes her in and hospitalizes her. Dr Jung has just started using a talking cure method of dealing with psychological problems, designed by Dr Sigmund Freud. Jung uses Freud’s model and recognizes that Sabina’s problem has roots in her troubled past. With time, Dr Jung and Dr Freud fall out. As Sabina recovers, she and Jung fall in love amidst medical taboos, which do not allow relationships between doctors and patients. She works under Dr Jung until she achieves her ambition of becoming a psychoanalyst. This relationship ends when Jung finds it hard to continue the affair behind his wife’s back. Sabina gets married to a Russian physician. Work Cited Freud, Sigmund, Todd Dufresne, and Gregory C. Richter. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Editions, 2011. Print. Kerr, John. A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print. Young-Eisendrath, Polly, and Terence Dawson. The Cambridge Companion to Jung. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Internet resource. Read More