A Dangerous Method

Overview

In A Dangerous Method, early psychoanalyst Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) pioneers Sigmund Freud's new "talk therapy" on "hysterical" patient Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). Jung, Spielrein and Freud would each, later, change the way the modern world thinks about the mind. But as the film opens in late-19th-century Zurich, Jung is an up-and-coming doctor and the Russian Spielrein is committed to his institution, kicking and screaming.

Jung begins his seven-year discipleship (read: professional friendship) with Freud (Viggo Mortensen) by correspondence, coming to meet his idol in person. Spielrein heals, soon studying to become a psychoanalyst herself. Persuaded by the Dionysian philosophy of passing, sick psychoanalyst Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), Jung allows himself to be seduced by Spielrein, who is still effectively fixated on him as her doctor.

A Dangerous Method is engaging. Knightley plays Spielrein with real strength and passion, and it's hard not to become engrossed by Mortensen and Fassbinder's rugged, joint exploration of each other's psyches as Freud and Jung. Each sees his subconcious as virgin territory, to be explored and explained.

Director David Cronenberg says that the pair were still exploring the ethical boundaries of therapy. But watching a preview of this film with friends and family who work in mental health, they couldn't help but feel unease at the lightness with which Jung's violation of the doctor-patient relationship gets played for a modern audience. Should Jung have known better, considering what was known at the time? "Yes, is the answer." one tells me. Nor is there enough spotlight on Spielrein, who is rarely seen away from the company of Freud or Jung.

But the passion of the the three leads is reason enough to explore this turn in the early days of psychology. And A Dangerous Method remains a striking movie that lingers sharply in the mind.