Shrinks. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t truly reshape their consciousness for a more pleasing outcome without taking into consideration the many ways that could cause irreparable harm to the psyche. Best to just watch A Dangerous Method, the fascinating story of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and their patient/fellow psychoanalyst-to-be Sabina Spielrein. After watching, you can tell me how that made you feel. It made me feel fantastic.
Everybody knows who Sigmund Freud is. The father of psychoanalysis, he’s the one who seems to be able to break everything down into something sexual and is now more of a sly joke than scientist to most folks. “Sometimes a banana is just a banana, Anna.” Carl Jung is well known, but not to the point of being a touchstone like Freud. Jung just isn’t in everyone’s collective unconscious yet…but since he’s the one that coined that term (and he’s more respected nowadays), he should be. Freud and Jung had a longstanding professional camaraderie that blossomed into friendship, only to crash and burn when their ideologies clashed. A Dangerous Method adds Spielrein, a gorgeous but dangerously neurotic woman who becomes a patient of Jung’s. In this movie, her arrival is the catalyst that shifts Jung’s ideas, ultimately causing the rift between Jung and Freud. In director David Cronenberg’s hands it’s a mesmerizing look at the humanity behind these great minds. Performances by Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley make this film one to watch when they announce the Oscar noms.
