Kathleen Alexis Gwynne B.

Fernandez
GMG11

Reaction Paper: A Dangerous Method

This movie brings out the theories, techniques, and the central characters in the early

history of psychoanalysis. It brings out the effectiveness of the said method and shows the risks

and dangers encountered when entering the unconscious mind.

The story develops from the birth of psychoanalysis to the relationship between Sigmund

Freud and Carl Jung. The movie opens with Jung (Michael Fassbender) who was married to the

wealthy Emma, and working at a hospital in Zurich in 1904 when Sabina Spielrein (Keira

Knightley) was referred to him in a deeply distressed, manic and desperate condition. He decided

to experiment with the "talking cure", or psychoanalysis, then being used in Vienna by Sigmund

Freud (Viggo Mortensen), a well-established but highly controversial figure.

As Sabina heals and blossoms, an attraction grows between her and Jung, despite Jung's

love for his wife, Emma. Spielrein eventually becomes the young doctor’s paramour in a

scandalous affair that she treats as extended therapy for the abuse she received as a child. Later, as

Freud takes Sabina as a patient, he learns of the affair and uses this information as a weapon in his

ideological struggle with Jung.

Initially viewing Jung as the torchbearer for the next generation of psychoanalytic theory,

Freud eventually loses respect for the doctor on both personal and professional grounds. Jung,

meanwhile, grows disdainful of Freud’s emphasis on repressed sexual desires as the answer for

everything. Jung’s decision to consider new treatments and move beyond a closed system of

Freudian psychoanalysis mirrors the constant grappling between tangible and irrational behavior.
 Jung and Freud journey to America. However, cracks appear in their friendship as they

begin to disagree more frequently on matters of psychoanalysis.Freud hopes that Jung will be his

successor but a deep rift develops when Jung moves away from Freud’s belief that even though

psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems, it cannot cure a patient. Following

Freud's collapse at an academic conference, Jung and Freud continue correspondence via letters,

through which they decide to end their relationship, after increasing hostilities and accusations

regarding the differences in their conceptualization of psychoanalysis.

Jung was deeply ambivalent about the future, convinced on the one hand that America

represented a liberating force and on the other that some apocalypse was about to be visited upon

mankind. And indeed it was by the First World War, the point at which A Dangerous Method ends,

concluding the era of hope and discovery it invites us to explore. We are left to ponder the legacy

of Freud and Jung and the complex way it continues to affect the way we think and colour our

daily lives. There is much to learn from the courage and mistakes of our analytic ancestors. It takes

courage to see and be seen and to relate and accept what is within ourselves and the other. Mistakes

will happen in all our relational lives, inside and outside the consultation room. It takes even more

courage to acknowledge them as such. This movie isn't simply work-for-hire for Cronenberg, the

Director; it treats issues that have long been prominent over the past decades.

“Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable, just to be able to go on living.”

- Carl Jung