A Dangerous Method Page #3

The music and the man, yes.

I'm very interested

in the myth of Siegfried.

The idea that something

pure and heroic can come...

can come perhaps, only come

from a sin, even a sin as dark as incest.

This is very strange.

What?

As I've told you,

I don't believe in coincidence.

I believe nothing happens

by accident.

All these things have significance.

The fact is, I'm in the middle of writing

something myself about the Siegfried myth.

- Are you really?

- I assure you.

Uh, whi... wich is your favourite

of the operas?

Das Rheingold.

Yes, that's right.

Mine too.

Can I ask you something?

Of course.

Do you think there's any possibility,

I could ever be a psychiatrist?

I know you could.

I hear nothing but good reports

on your work at the university.

You're exactly

the kind of person we need.

Insane, you mean?

Yes.

We sane doctors

have serious limitations.

"Dear Friend, I feel I can, at last,

permit myself this informal"...

"mode of address as I ask you to

grant me a very particular favour".

"Dr. Otto Gross, a most brilliant,

but erratic character",

"is urgently in need

of your medical help".

"I consider him, apart from yourself,

the only man capable"...

"of making a major contribution

to our field".

"Whatever you do, don't let him out

before October",

"when I shall be able

to take him over from you".

"And remember

his father's warning"...

"made when Otto

was only a very small child".

"Watch out for him,

he bites".

You still feel threatened

by your father?

Anyone with any sense

feels threatened by my father.

He is extremely threatening.

His wish, to have you hospitalized,

you don't think that arises...

from a concern,

for your welfare?

Listen,

what does any normal old...

patriarch want...

in the twilight of his life?

Grandchildren, grandsons,

am I right?

And yet...

last summer,

when I presented him

with not one, but two little Grosses,

one by my wife,

one by one

of my most respectable mistresses,

was he grateful?

And now that there's

another one on the way,

admittedly by some woman...

I hardly know...

he's apoplectic.

And all he can think is to get me

banged away in some institution.

You got any children?

- Two girls.

- Same mother?

Yes.

So you're...

not a believer in monogamy?

For a neurotic like myself,

I can't possibly imagine

a more stressful concept.

And you don't find it necessary or...

desirable to exercise some restraint,

as a contribution, say, to the...

smooth functioning of civilization.

What?

And make myself ill?

I should've thought that some form

of sexual repression...

would have to be...

practiced in any rational society.

No wonder the hospitals

are bulging at the seams.

Tell me, do you find the best way

to enhance your popularity...

with your patients is to tell them

whatever it is they most want to hear?

What does it matter whether we're

popular with them or not?

Well, I don't know.

Suppose you want to f*** them?

If there is one thing

I've learned in my short life...

is this...

never repress anything.

So you've never slept

with any of your patients?

Of course not.

I have to steer through

the temptations of transference...

and counter-transference and...

that's an essential stage of the process.

When transference occurs,

when the patient

becomes fixated on me,

I explain to her, that this is merely...

a symbol of her wretched

monogamous habits.

I assure her that it's fine

to want to sleep with me,

but only if, at the same time,

she acknowledges to herself that she wants

to sleep with a great many other people.

Suppose she doesn't?

Then it's my job to convince her

that's part of the illness.

That's what people are like.

If we don't tell them the truth,

who will?

You think Freud's right?

You think all neurosis

is of exclusively sexual origin?

I think Freud's obsession with sex

probably has a great deal...

to do with the fact

that he never gets any.

You could be right.

It seems to me, a measure of the true

perversity of the human race,

that one of its very few

reliably pleasurable activities...

should be the subject

of so much hysteria and repression.

But not to repress yourself...

is to unleash all kinds of

dangerous and destructive forces.

Our job... is to make our patients

capable of freedom.

I've heard it said, that you helped

one of your patients to kill herself.

She was resolutely suicidal.

I just explained, how she could do it

without botching it.

Then I asked her if she didn't prefer

the idea of becoming my lover.

She opted for both.

That can't be

what we want for our patients.

Freedom is freedom.

I've been thinking

about Wagner's opera.

In it, he says that perfection

can only be arrived at...

what is conventionally

thought of as sin, is that right?

Which must

surely have to do with...

the energy created

by the friction of opposites.

Not just that you're the doctor

and I'm the patient,

but that you're Swiss

and I'm Russian.

I'm... I'm Jewish and you're Aryan

and all other kinds of darker differences.

Darker?

If I'm right, only the clash of destructive

forces can create something new.

When my father brought me to you,

I was very ill and my illness was sexual.

It's clear that the subject I'm studying

is entirely grounded in sexuality.

So, naturally, I'm becoming more

and more acutely aware of the fact...

that I have no sexual experience.

Law students are not normally

expected to rob banks.

It's generally thought to be the man

who should take the initiative.

Don't you think there's

something male in every woman...

and...

something female in every man?

Or should be?

Maybe.

I expect you're right, yes.

If you ever want to take

the initiative...

I live in that building there,

where the bay window is.

I can't understand

what you're waiting for.

Just take her to some secluded spot and

thrash her to within an inch of her life.

That's clearly what she wants.

How can you deny her

such a simple pleasure?

Pleasure is never simple,

as you very well know.

It is.

Of course it is.

Until we decide to complicate it.

What my father calls maturity.

What I call surrender.

Surrender, for me, would be

to give in to these urges.

Then surrender.

It doesn't matter what you call it as long

as you don't let the experience escape.

That's my prescription.

I'm supposed to be treating you.

And it's been most effective.

I'd say the analysis

was not too far from completion.

Mine, yes.

Not so sure about yours.

I've been spending

so much time with him,

I'm afraid I've been neglecting

some of my other patients.

He's immensely seductive

quite sure he's right..

And obsessionally neurotic.

Pretty dangerous, in fact.

Do you mean you doubt your powers

to convince him?

Worse than that.

What I'm afraid of

is his power to convince me.

On the subject of monogamy,

for example.

Why should we put so much

frantic effort...

into suppressing

our most basic natural instincts?

Rate this script:2.5 / 2 votes