Released in 2011, A Dangerous Method is a film by one of Canada’s most revered directors, David Cronenberg. It explores the life and death of psychoanalysis’s most revered figures: Freud, Jung, and his patient, Sabina Spielrein. A Dangerous Method is a chronicle of modern psychiatry’s inception, focusing on the volatile relationships and powerful splits of the era. It is based on real events and the stage play by Christopher Hampton, who also wrote the film’s screenplay.
The film features Michael Fassbender as Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Freud, and Knightley as Spielrein. Their performances mark a pivotal moment in psychological history, and the film’s haunting tone alongside calm visuals is a hallmark of Cronenberg’s. Behind the intellectual arguments, there is a palpable tension of raw desire, repression, and control, as well as emotional fragility. These themes, deeply rooted in Cronenberg’s body of work, are expressed here, quite uniquely, in his most restrained style.
Film Summary
The movie starts in the 1900s with the story of Sabina Spielrein, a young Russian woman with debilitating hysteria. Sabina is hospitalized at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich. There, she is treated by a developing physician in the field, Carl Jung, who is a Swiss psychiatrist and a follower of Freud’s emerging theories on the unconscious and psychotherapy.
As the young physician treats Sabina, he relies on Freud’s system of psychoanalysis, engaging in what is known as the “talking cure.” Over time, she starts revealing memories of her past—particularly the traumatic events of a combination of abuse, shame, and a yearning of suppressed emotions and associating strongly with her self-imposed social exile. Sabina turns out to be not only exceptionally smart and truly remarkable, but she is also heavily infatuated with Jung.
Jung, though married with kids, becomes a part of Sabina’s world. Their professional relationship turns into a love affair that is eventually marked with physical intimacy intertwined with struggles of power, desires of sadomasochism, and professional boundaries.
At this point, their relationships are beginning to form. Freud and Jung have written to each other and now, they are finally meeting each other. It seems to the audience as though there is a strong intellectual partnership between the two. Jung, as played by Viggo Mortenson, is calm and authoritative as Freud and is both a mentor to Jung and a point of key philosophical clashes with him on, spirituality, the nature of the unconscious, and the limits of sexual interpretation.
With the mounting anger and resentment Jung feels both for Sabina and Freud, the relationships parallel each in their destructiveness. With this new relation, Jung is off of Freud’s leash and begins to expand on the previously unbendable ideas. Constructing ideas like archetypes, the collective unconscious, and individuation, Jung starts to break away from Freud.
Aside from the other characters, Sabina is mentally more whole compared to the other characters. With her succes as a reputation in her own right, Freud, unlike her ex husband, admires her. The essence of the film is by the end of it, the person, despite their essence, have clear emotional, personal and professional ties.
Themes and Interpretations
A Dangerous Method takes a look at the intersection of life and personal ideologies. Freud and Jung’s theories on repression, transference, the unconscious, behavioral psychology, and Psychoanalysis are not only discussed in the film, but are instrumental in the characters’ lives. Characters don’t just react based on their emotions, but every reaction shapes their thoughts and theories.
Another major theme is the conflict between desire and reason. Jung seems trapped in a conflict between his controlled, work-focused self and his suppressed desires for Sabina. This conflict is a mirror of the theories Jung and Freud are hoping to understand. Freud’s insistence on the sexual roots of all neuroses is challenged by Jung’s openness to spirituality and myth, which signals a deeper philosophical divide. Freud stands as grounded materialism and empirical skepticism, while Jung is a kind of mystical idealism.
The film also shows the imbalance of power in personal and work relationships. The Jung-Sabina relationship is troubled by the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship and emotional manipulation. The other shift from a Freud-Jung relationship into a complex fight for power, visibility, and intellectual dominance.
Sabina represents a different transformation; she starts the story as a patient, and transforms into a pioneering analyst. This change is one of the most impactful arcs of the film. Her character represents the muted voices of women in the society and academia, and she is silenced no more. Sabina, through the sheer intellect and willpower, claims her space.
Characterization and Performance
Carl Jung is played with precision, and emotional restraint by Michael Fassbender. Jung is outwardly calm and collected, and internally, he is a maelstrom. Fassbender’s portrayal of Jung conveys the man’s psychological fragmentation as he tries to understand the unseen forces at play in and around him, and as a result of that, he is being devoured.
Sigmund Freud is played by Viggo Mortensen, who commands the screen with a performance that is warm, witty, and at the same time, rigidly authoritative. Freud is not histrionic; he is understated, and his quiet intensity reflects Freud’s analytical detachment and a strategist’s mind.
In one of the most daring roles of the film, Keira Knightley’s Sabina is marked by a physical intensity that is raw, particularly in the early outbursts. Her overflowing hysteria is very hard to watch, and yet, essential in portraying the gravitas of her condition. Over the course of the film, Knightley showcases the character’s vulnerability and emotional strength, intellect and brilliance, ensuring that Sabina is not simply a pawn in the Freud-Jung wrangle, but rather, the emotional center of the film.
Vincent Cassel plays Otto Gross, a psychiatrist, and anarchist, who encourages Jung to let go of his constraints and pursue his desires. Otto both propels and warns Jung.
Direction and Style
In A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg, a director famous for his body horror and psychological thrillers, takes a more muted, restrained approach. The film is aesthetically pleasing, showcasing meticulously framed shots, accurately depicting early 20th century Europe, and featuring a muted color palette. Even though the content is characteristically intense and sexual, Cronenberg employs visual restraint in A Dangerous Method, trusting the dialogue and performances to convey the emotional depth.
The screenplay by Christopher Hampton sustains an intellectual rhythm of the film’s dense, articulate dialogue featuring debates and exchanges of philosophy, which might make language challenging to follow, but it’s historically accurate and fitting the film’s gravity.
The score by Howard Shore adds quiet melancholy which emphasizes the muffled tension throughout the film.
Accuracy and Impact
A Dangerous Method incorporates several historical sources such as letters and writings by Freud, Jung, and Spielrein. Although every film must condense and dramatize events, this one stays remarkably close to ‘the truth’. While not as well known as Freud, Sabina Spielrein was a prominent and pioneering psychoanalyst who tackled major topics, one being the ‘death instinct,’ well before Freud popularized the term.
The film has also been praised for depicting her as a real person and not a mere victim to her theories, portraying the psychological theories not as abstract concepts but as deeply human struggles.
Closing Thoughts
The deeper themes of the film A Dangerous Method stem from the narrative of the film. It is the combination of suppression, conflict, and psychoanalytical personal metamorphoses which emotionally resonate within the plot. It is due to strong performances and smart directing that we receive this glimpse into the early days of psychoanalysis and the figures that crafted contemporary psychology.
While the film does explore a fascinating aspect of modern psychology, what intrigues me the most is how the characters, despite having a narrative to follow, choose to remain chaotic and disorderly. Exploring the ‘how’ and ‘why’ lends me to think that the film provides and explores such a strong base from which a whole new layer of a subject can be tapped into.
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