Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A dangerous method - Jung vs Freud

I think this is a very ambitious film - not sure if it tries to represent the historical professional conflict between the two great psychodynamic thinkers of our time. It is quite diffficult to simplify and contrast their subtle yet distinctive variants of the new form of talking therapy for seriously mental ill people. The film starts in a very confronting way - most people will never have seen full mania and would prefer not to - despite the fact that Keira Knightley has finally found the perfect role in which she can overact to her heart's desire. So the contrasts continue through geography (lakeside Swizerland vs urban Vienna) age and religion. But the male egos are brought together through their relationships with the Russian Sabina Spielrein and this is all palyed out against a visually spectacular array of early 1900's fashion and music. There is also the pervading debate about the importance of sexuality which is expressed at both the level of a simplified theoretical debate and the lived experience of total exploration... I am encouraged to read more to find out about the lives of these great men - but I am also relieved to recognise the limitatons of their respective theories...

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