A Dangerous Method Page #2

I would start to get wet.

When it came to my... to my brothers

or even... just... threatened that...

that was enough.

I'd have to go down and...

I wanted to lie down and...

and touch myself.

Later at school,

anything would...

would set it off, any...

any kind of... humiliation.

I looked for any...

humiliation.

Even here when you... you hit my...

my coat with your stick.

I had to come back right away,

I was so... excited.

There's...

there's no hope for me.

I'm vile... and...

filthy and... corrupt.

I must...

I must never be let out of here.

So good to meet you

at long last.

Professor Freud.

You're most welcome.

Please.

Perhaps the terms themselves

should be reviewed.

If, for instance, we could come up

with some milder term than "libido",

we might not encounter

such emotional resistance.

It would make the teaching side

of things much easier.

Is euphemism a good idea?

Once they work out what we actually mean,

they'll be just as appalled as ever.

I take your point, but I still think

it's worth trying to sweeten the pill...

when it comes

to questions of sexuality.

And, by the way, please don't feel

you have to restrain yourself here.

My family are all veterans of the most

unsuitable topics of mealtime conversation.

I have a number of clinical examples

which I believe support my position...

with regard to sexuality.

Hm.

And how is your

little Russian patient?

As I told you, after the initial abreaction

there was the most dramatic improvement.

We've enrolled her in the

medical school at the University...

where she's doing extremely well.

She's a walking advertisement

for the effectiveness of psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis.

Oh?

It's more logical.

And it sounds better.

If you say so.

Are you still treating her?

Yes, and we continue

to unearth new material.

For example, the extraordinary

procedure she devised as a small child,

where she would sit on one heel,

attempt to defecate and at the same time

try to prevent herself from defecating.

Hm.

She said this gave rise

to the most blissful feelings.

Nice story.

Those of my patients who remain

fixated at the anal stage of their...

erotic development often come out

with the most amusing details.

And, of course, all of them are

finicky, compulsively, tidy,

stubborn and extremely stingy

with money.

No doubt your Russian

conforms to this pattern.

Well, no, she doesn't.

The masochistic aspects of her condition

are much more deeply rooted...

than any anal fixations

we may have uncovered.

The two are intimately connected.

I can only tell you that she is

rather disorganized,

emotionally generous

and exceptionally idealistic.

Well, perhaps it's a Russian thing.

Is she a virgin?

Yes.

Certainly.

Mmm.

Almost certainly.

No, certainly.

Hm.

I don't think you have any notion

of the true strengths and depths...

to the opposition to our work.

There's a whole medical establishment,

of course,

baying to send Freud

to the auto-da-fe.

But that's as nothing compared to

what happens when our ideas begin...

to trickle through in whatever

garbled form they're relayed to the public.

The denials, the frenzy,

the incoherent rage.

But might that not be caused

by your insistence on the exclusively...

sexual interpretation

of the clinical material?

All I'm doing is pointing out...

what experience indicates to me

must be the truth.

And I can assure you

that in a hundred year's time,

our work will still be rejected.

Columbus, you know, had no idea

what country he'd discovered.

Like him, I'm in the dark.

All I know is I've set foot on the shore

and the country exists.

I think of you more as Galileo.

And your opponents

as those who condemned him,

while refusing even to put their eye

to his telescope.

In any event,

I have simply opened a door.

It's for the young men like yourself

to walk through it.

I'm sure you have many more doors

to open for us.

Of course, there's the added difficulty,

more ammunition for our enemies,

that all of us here in Vienna, in our

psychoanalytical circle, are Jews.

I don't see what difference

that makes.

That, if I may say so,

is an exquisitely Protestant remark.

I dreamed...

I dreamed about a horse, being hoisted

by cables to a considerable height.

Suddenly, a cable breaks

and the horse is dashed to the ground.

But it's not hurt.

It leaps up and gallops away,

impeded only by a heavy log,

which it's obliged

to drag along the ground.

Then a rider on a small horse...

appears in front of it,

so that it's forced to slow down.

And a carriage appears

in front of the small horse...

so that our horse

is compelled to slow down even more.

I imagine the horse is yourself.

Yes.

Your ambition

has been frustrated in some way.

The rider slowing me down.

Yes.

I think this may refer

to my wife's first pregnancy.

I had to give up an opportunity

to go to America because of it.

Ah.

The carriage in front...

perhaps alludes to an apprehension

that our two daughters,

and other children perhaps still to come,

will impede my progress even more.

As a father of six,

I can vouch for that.

Not to mention the inevitable

financial difficulties.

No.

Fortunately,

my wife is extremely wealthy.

Ah.

Yes.

That is fortunate.

This log...

Yes?

I think, perhaps,

you should entertain the possibility...

that it represents the penis.

Yes.

In which case what may be at issue

is that a certain sexual constraint...

has been brought about by a fear of a

succession of endless pregnancies.

I'm bound to say that if one of my

patients had brought me this dream...

I might have said that the number of

restraining elements surrounding this...

unfortunate horse...

could perhaps point

to the determined suppression...

of some unruly sexual desire.

Hm?

Yes.

There is that as well.

I wonder if you're aware

of the fact...

that our conversation

has so far lasted... 13 hours?

I'm so sorry.

I had no idea.

My dear young colleague,

please don't apologize.

It was our first meeting,

we had a great deal

to say to one another.

And unless I'm much mistaken,

we always will.

I shall have to be extremely careful.

What do you mean?

Why?

He's so persuasive,

he's so convincing.

He makes you feel you should abandon your

own ideas and simply follow in his wake.

His followers in Vienna

are all... deeply unimpressive.

A crowd of Bohemians and degenerates,

just picking up the crumbs from his table.

Well, perhaps he's reached the stage

where obedience...

is more important to him

than originality.

Hm.

I've tried to tackle him about his

obsession with sexuality, his insistence...

is left in every symptom

in sexual terms.

He's completely inflexible.

In my case, of course

he'd had been right.

Yes, as you would

expect him to be in many cases.

Possibly even in majority of cases.

There must be more than one hinge

into the universe.

Do you like Wagner?

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