The story of Sabina Spielrein has long been forgotten, and yet according to this account, she was a key force in shaping the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Keira Knightley goes to extreme lengths to externalise Spielrein’s inner turmoil in the early scenes where she is taken to see Carl Jung (a poised Michael Fassbender), but she is soon back to alluring form when she becomes engaged in a scandalous love affair with the experimental doctor, and proves that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned when the relationship begins to sour.
David Cronenberg does his best to show passion and madness as inextricably linked, as the disturbed Spielrein gives in to her sadomasochistic sexual desires, while Jung remains aloof and restrained in their covert spanking sessions. The drama demonstrates that Jung was indeed dealing with dangerous issues.
The precarious link between Freud and Jung, the forefathers of psychoanalysis, is the subject of much discussion, but A Dangerous Method places Freud (a marvellous Viggo Mortensen) as a somewhat jovial father figure to the controlled and superstitious Jung. But when Spielrein takes her grievances at the failed romance and enrols in therapy with Freud, the harmonious union and academic alliance becomes fractious.
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