Sabina Spielrein

I believe it was in Los Angeles, just over 20 years ago, that I first heard the name of Sabina Spielrein. Film producer Howard Rosenman told me the fascinating story of the Russian doctor, one of the first female psychoanalysts, who, as a teenager, had been one of Carl Jung's patients, had stayed in Zurich to study psychology at the University of Zurich, and who might have had a love affair with Jung.

The debut feature for writer-director Alice Winocour, “Augustine” features a bracing and powerful performance by the young performer known as Soko. Now playing in Los Angeles, the film is set in 19th century France, its story based on the ethically and emotionally complicated relationship that develops between Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (played by Vincent Lindon) and the young woman (Soko) prone to fits of what was then called “hysteria” who would become his star patient. The scenes of Augustine having fits -- which were created in part by having Soko yanked about by unseen ropes and cables and in part by her yoga-induced flexibility -- are disconcerting to watch.

The epic romance of psychoanalysis is made up of numerous smaller romances, each inviting a variety of interpretations, quite enough to nourish the literary imagination for a long time to come. John Kerr's, "A Most Dangerous Method," is an engaging, beautifully written, account of the ill-fated alliance between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung that began in 1906 when the 50-year-old Freud named Jung, a 31-year-old psychiatrist at the Burgholzli clinic in Zurich, as heir to his psychoanalytic program.

Few working filmmakers invite the application of the auteur theory — the notion that some films bear a directorial signature — as frequently as David Cronenberg. The coherence of his body of work is hard to miss. In movies as varied as "Videodrome," "Dead Ringers" and "Crash," he has found myriad ways to explore a recurring set of themes: the thrill and danger of transfiguration, the interrelation of the mind and the body. With these obsessions so firmly established, it is no wonder that many critics and fans watch a new Cronenberg film looking for signs of the old ones, sometimes detecting their encoded presence, sometimes bemoaning their absence.

If we only had a couch to take "The Talking Cure." It's apropos not only because Christopher Hampton's play, now at the Mark Taper Forum, features founding figures of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and their sometime protege Sabina Spielrein. A couch seat also suits Hampton's reverent, simplistic portrait of these pioneers, which comes off as the sort of studied, speechifying docudrama for which cable television was meant.

Shortly after Russian hysteric Sabina Spielrein is carried kicking and screaming into a Swiss sanitarium, her new doctor, Carl Jung, primly inquires, "What are your interests?" Sabina, portrayed in "A Dangerous Method" by Keira Knightley, snarls in reply: "Suicide and interplanetary travel. " Some icebreaker! Spastic and stammering, Sabina recovers after taking the "talking cure" administered by Jung (Michael Fassbender) under the guidance of his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen)

The debut feature for writer-director Alice Winocour, “Augustine” features a bracing and powerful performance by the young performer known as Soko. Now playing in Los Angeles, the film is set in 19th century France, its story based on the ethically and emotionally complicated relationship that develops between Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (played by Vincent Lindon) and the young woman (Soko) prone to fits of what was then called “hysteria” who would become his star patient. The scenes of Augustine having fits -- which were created in part by having Soko yanked about by unseen ropes and cables and in part by her yoga-induced flexibility -- are disconcerting to watch.

It never ceases to amaze me how few critics know where to fault a production when it doesn't work. Case in point: Rob Kendt's review of "The Talking Cure," which he didn't like, found boring and held the script responsible ("Talk About Mind Games," April 16).

Before it became known as psychoanalysis, the radical new method of dealing with emotional crises pioneered by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and others was known simply as "the talking cure. " And it is talk - smart, satisfying and sometimes even thrilling - that is at the heart of "A Dangerous Method. " "Method" stars Viggo Mortensen as Freud, Michael Fassbender as Jung, and a game but somewhat miscast Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, a woman who influenced them both. The confident directing style of David Cronenberg is essential in making this kind of intellectually stimulating cinema look easy, but the critical component in the film's success is Christopher Hampton's classically well-written script.

Few working filmmakers invite the application of the auteur theory — the notion that some films bear a directorial signature — as frequently as David Cronenberg. The coherence of his body of work is hard to miss. In movies as varied as "Videodrome," "Dead Ringers" and "Crash," he has found myriad ways to explore a recurring set of themes: the thrill and danger of transfiguration, the interrelation of the mind and the body. With these obsessions so firmly established, it is no wonder that many critics and fans watch a new Cronenberg film looking for signs of the old ones, sometimes detecting their encoded presence, sometimes bemoaning their absence.

Shortly after Russian hysteric Sabina Spielrein is carried kicking and screaming into a Swiss sanitarium, her new doctor, Carl Jung, primly inquires, "What are your interests?" Sabina, portrayed in "A Dangerous Method" by Keira Knightley, snarls in reply: "Suicide and interplanetary travel. " Some icebreaker! Spastic and stammering, Sabina recovers after taking the "talking cure" administered by Jung (Michael Fassbender) under the guidance of his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen)

Before it became known as psychoanalysis, the radical new method of dealing with emotional crises pioneered by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and others was known simply as "the talking cure. " And it is talk - smart, satisfying and sometimes even thrilling - that is at the heart of "A Dangerous Method. " "Method" stars Viggo Mortensen as Freud, Michael Fassbender as Jung, and a game but somewhat miscast Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, a woman who influenced them both. The confident directing style of David Cronenberg is essential in making this kind of intellectually stimulating cinema look easy, but the critical component in the film's success is Christopher Hampton's classically well-written script.

It never ceases to amaze me how few critics know where to fault a production when it doesn't work. Case in point: Rob Kendt's review of "The Talking Cure," which he didn't like, found boring and held the script responsible ("Talk About Mind Games," April 16).

If we only had a couch to take "The Talking Cure." It's apropos not only because Christopher Hampton's play, now at the Mark Taper Forum, features founding figures of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and their sometime protege Sabina Spielrein. A couch seat also suits Hampton's reverent, simplistic portrait of these pioneers, which comes off as the sort of studied, speechifying docudrama for which cable television was meant.

I believe it was in Los Angeles, just over 20 years ago, that I first heard the name of Sabina Spielrein. Film producer Howard Rosenman told me the fascinating story of the Russian doctor, one of the first female psychoanalysts, who, as a teenager, had been one of Carl Jung's patients, had stayed in Zurich to study psychology at the University of Zurich, and who might have had a love affair with Jung.

The epic romance of psychoanalysis is made up of numerous smaller romances, each inviting a variety of interpretations, quite enough to nourish the literary imagination for a long time to come. John Kerr's, "A Most Dangerous Method," is an engaging, beautifully written, account of the ill-fated alliance between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung that began in 1906 when the 50-year-old Freud named Jung, a 31-year-old psychiatrist at the Burgholzli clinic in Zurich, as heir to his psychoanalytic program.

Freud's Vienna and Other Essays, by Bruno Bettelheim (Alfred A. Knopf: $22.95, 271 pp.) At 85, Bruno Bettelheim remains one of the commanding figures of psychoanalysis and child psychology in the 20th Century--a man who survived the Holocaust and then devoted his life and work to exploring the most intimate regions of the human mind and the human experience.