Freud (1962) - full transcript

But the great astronomer
shattered that conceit,

and we were forced
to admit our planet

is but one of many
which swing around the Sun.

That there are other systems
beyond our solar system

in myriad worlds.

But the great biologist made us
see that our physical organism

is the product
of a vast evolutionary process

whose laws
are no different for us

than for any other form
of animal life.

| think it was decided before
your disagreement with Meynert.

Frau and Sigi cried the whole...



You won't forget me, Sigi?

There are many who would
deny it a place

in the pages of the
Encyclopedia Medica.

Excellent description of
hysteria may be found

in the records of witchcraft
trials in former times.

Its victims were supposed
to be possessed by the Devil.

There were veritable epidemics
of this delusion.

Whole communities were infected.

Yes, it was infectious,
yet it had no germ.

Hysteria violates
the medical tenet

that all bodily symptoms
must be of organic origin,

and the psychological tenet

that the mind is capable
of only one thought at a time.

But the facts do not cease
to exist because they are



in contradiction to
our beloved theories.

My dear Jeanne, how long
have you been unable to walk?

- Since 1880.
- Six years ago.

Did anything happen
to you at that time

which might have brought on
your illness?

The patient remembers nothing.

Yet we've learned
from her relatives

that the appearance
of her symptoms

followed immediately
upon a railway crash.

She wasn't injured physically.

And here, we have,
to all appearances,

a classical example
of paralysis agitans.

flowing through them.

You are cured, cured!

You can even stand upon them.

Yes, you can stand.

Rise up and
stand upon your legs.

Splendid, Jeanne. Splendid.

Open your eyes, open your eyes!

Walk, now. Don't be afraid.

Walk around the room.

And now, having demonstrated

that we can remove symptoms
by suggestion,

let's see if we're able
to create them as well.

When I clap my hands,

Stand still, Jeanne.

Do you see Servais over there?

Remember how he shook?

Do you, Jeanne?

Like that.

Wasn't it, Jeanne?

And now, your arm is shaking
like his did.

Now both your arms.

Shaking, shaking.

And your legs.
You can't stop, can you?

You shake, shake.

Gentlemen

Now my assistants are going to
awaken our patients.

They will remember nothing.

As beautiful almost as my own
Amalia was on our wedding day.

How do you reconcile this
with Charcot's theory?

If her mind had been divided,

why would remembering
the traumatic incident

relieve a symptom? The darkened
part would produce wild ideas.

No. Charcot is mistaken.

Trauma doesn't divide the mind
as an axe splits a log.

It only causes the memory
of the incident

to be struck off
from consciousness.

But how can unconscious memories
create symptoms?

Because they are surrounded
by emotions

that cannot find their natural
outlet through consciousness.

If you are overcome by grief,
you shed tears.

Angry, you strike a blow.
Frightened, you run.

The emotion aroused in you is
discharged in physical action.

But, what happens if the emotion
is dammed up, strangulated?

There's fire in the fireplace,
but the chimney is blocked.

The fire doesn't go out.
It smolders,

and smoke fills the room,
the entire house.

And finally, it leaks out
through a pantry window.

A morbid symptom is only
emotional energy

coming out the wrong place.

Freud, what do you think?

| think a door has been opened.

You've made a discovery
as important as Pasteur's.

He isolated the germ, you've
isolated the pathogenic memory.

Cecily's may be a unique case.

I'm rather inclined to think
she's a classic case.

Would it be possible for you

to try out this method
in the hospital?

Yes.

You row to the
middle of the lake,

what happens then?

- I stand up.
-Yes?

The boat rocks. I'm falling.

The boat turns over.
I'm in the water.

My brother calls for help.

| swim around the boat,
but I can't find him.

- My brother is gone.
- Where is he?

Drowned.

The boat sinks!

- I swim for the shore.
- You swim?

| swim.

What are you doing, Dr. Freud?

| order you to
stop this at once.

Quiet, you fool.

In Professor Meynert's absence,
| am in charge here.

- He doesn't approve hypnosis.
- Damn you both.

| shall tell Meynert
what you said.

I'll tell him myself.

What can I do for you,
Herr Freud?

Professor Meynert,

did you give anyone authority
to stop me practicing hypnosis?

Of course.

But the patient was
from the general ward.

He wasn't from your department.

You are, Freud.

You realize you're forcing me to
resign my post at the hospital.

You renounced science completely

the day you rejected my offer
and went to Paris.

Paris, the path
to fame and fortune.

Six easy lessons...
A la Charcot.

How dare you say that?

How will you prevent it?
You'll hypnotize me?

At my command, everyone asleep!

The blind at attention!
You are ordered to see!

Paralytics, about turn!

Quick march one-two, one-two!

Heil, Sigmund Freud,
the conquering here of neurosis.

As if you knew
what a neurosis is.

As if your Charcot knew.

It's a way of making life
possible and you rob them of it!

You would bring the
light of understanding

into their poor benighted souls.

And the evil spirits will fly
away when the cock crows.

Look.

Yes, scorpions.
The fatal kind, from Mexico.

I'm testing the effects
of their poison

on the nervous system
of higher animals.

Charming little fellows.

Here's the sun test.

Well, Freud,

do you think light kills
evil spirits?

| rather think it revives them.

If the box remains open,
they'll run about everywhere.

The room... the world will be
alive with them.

Back into darkness.

There you are.

Leave to the night
what belongs to the night.

- Schnapps?
- Thank you, I don't drink.

You don't drink. You'd be too
afraid of letting yourself go.

What would let slip
if you got drunk?

One takes every precaution.
One walls oneself in.

| know what you are. I've been
observing you for a long time.

| am certain that neurosis
is lying in wait for you.

| know the symptoms.

| know why you're attracted
by other people's madness,

because it makes you
forget your own.

How would you like
your old master

to be sick of hysteria
a la Charcot?

How well you'd take care of him.

No luck.
I'm as sound as an apple.

Goodbye, Freud.
Leave and don't come back.

And my wife said:

"I'm not jealous
in the slightest,”

but I would like to know
how you have the nerve

to play the ladies' man with
other women in front of me

who knows from bitter experience
that you're not a man at all...

Dance music.

It's coming from a house
across the street.

They are dancing on the terrace.

| love to dance.

| long to be with them.

How do you do,
Herr von Schlosser?

Yes, very much.

He? Your father?

- A girl of 17. Every night.

Mother.

Mother.

Mother.

No, dear, it's Martha.
Your wife.

Sigi?

Sigi. Dr. Breuer is here.

Breuer.

This is an honor.

| was making a call nearby
and thought I'd stop in.

What've you been doing
with yourself?

Between patients
and chess problems,

another article
for the Neurological Journal.

"On the Origin
of the Acoustic Nerve".

But this is pure anatomy.

It's good to be back with
experimentally proven facts.

| was homesick for neurology
and I didn't know it.

What about Studies on Hysteria?

The discovery is yours.
| contributed nothing.

There's no reason
you should share the credit.

You look a bit peaked.
How's his appetite, Martha?

He eats hardly anything.

Sleeping properly?

Tosses all night, and cries out.

I'm going to examine him
here and now.

- Sit down. Open your shirt.
- No.

No. There's nothing wrong
with me, I assure you.

What is it then?

| understand you gave up
Fraulein Wolf's case.

Yes.

And Herr Brenner and Frau Jonas.

- Yes.
- Surely they weren't all cured?

| couldn't go on prescribing
cold baths and massage.

I'm surprised
at your prescribing them at all.

- What else is there?
- Need you ask?

You should see
the Koertner girl.

She's living proof
of the effectiveness

of our hypnotic method.

Tell me, Freud,

when was the last time
you hypnotized a patient?

I... I don't remember.

Which case was it?

Eh... Which...?

| know. It was...

It was the son of a general.
His name escapes me.

- You never told me about him.
- There's a little to tell.

| saw him once.
He was psychotic.

| was forced to commit him.

I'd like to know, why did you
stop in the middle of our work?

Meynert said,

"It's better to keep scorpions
locked up in darkness."

I'm forced to agree with him.

You were making such strides
forward, giant strides.

Did you know Meynert
had a heart attack?

| was called in yesterday
on consultation.

Will he recover?

Matter of weeks or days.

- Should I give him any message?
- No.

Well, I must be on my way.
I've calls to make.

Martha.

There's nothing wrong
with him physically.

Thank heaven.

- How is Mathilda?
- Very well, thank you.

She's been after me
to take a holiday.

| can't even get Sigmund away
for an afternoon in the country.

That's the penalty for being
a doctor's wife.

Let me hear from you.

You sent for him, didn't you?

Didn't you?

Yes. I thought you might be ill.

What is it? I can't bear
to see you so unhappy.

- Won't you tell me?
- There's nothing wrong with me.

For Dr. Freud.

Sigi, a coachman is waiting.

Professor Meynert.
What does he want?

He's critically ill.
Breuer just told me.

The arrogance of the man.
"Come immediately".

He's dying, Sigi.

How amazed he must be
at the thought.

He always took himself
for Jehovah.

Freud?

Come in.

Closer.

Come closer.

I've read all your pieces
in the Neurological Journal.

Your style has become
more sober, less belligerent.

You've learned how
to set forth your views

without wounding anyone.

In short, they're fit
for the waste basket.

- If you asked me here...
- Spare a dying man.

Breuer says that you've
given up the idea

of proving the
existence of hysteria.

A pity.

| could have settled
the question

by presenting you with
a classic case.

Who?

Myself.

| have a whole complex
of symptoms.

Migraines, night terrors,
even paralysis.

Remember how I carried my right
hand-thumb

hooked around a waistcoat button

as though I was having
my portrait painted?

You never suspected, did you?

Did you know this when you
drove me away from your clinic?

| knew it before Charcot.
I've known it for 20 years.

And yet you held me up to
ridicule before our colleagues?

Ham was accursed by his father
for seeing him naked.

You're my spiritual son.

I'm not sleeping.
I'm gathering my energies.

Sit down. Don't interrupt.

Neurotics form a brotherhood.

They learn to recognize each
other as I did you.

They have only one rule: Silence
in the presence of the enemy.

Our common enemy,

the normal people who would
knock our deformities,

torment and degrade us.

You belong to the brotherhood.

| feared you because you seemed
determined to betray us.

So I did what I could
to discredit you.

My life has been a sham.

| misused my talents,

hiding the truth
even from myself.

| suppressed my real being.

The result,

I'm dying in a state of pride
and ignorance.

| don't know who I am.

It's not I who lived my life,
but another,

the creation of my vanity.

Break the silence.
Do what you set out to do.

Betray us. We need a traitor.

Go to the heart of our darkness.
Hunt out the dragon.

Angels and saints slay dragons.
| am neither.

If you lack the strength,
make a pact with the Devil.

What a splendid thing
to descend to hell

and light your torch
from its fires?

Farewell.

Farewell.

She longs to be moving
to its rhythm in a man's arms.

Now when you see where it's
leading, you shrink from it.

you'll answer Dr. Freud.

Cecily,
you're going back in time.

Back in time.

You're in Naples,
in your room, at the hotel.

It's night time.

There's a knock at the door.

Could you to take over
my practice for me?

- I'm going to Venice.

Won't you kiss me goodbye?

Your friends' wives
know all about it.

| seem to be the only
one who doesn't.

What are they saying?

It's not so much what they say
as how they say it.

Slyly, in whispers.

| trust you.

Sigi, what is it?

but her condition
hasn't improved.

Frau Koertner wanted me
to take the case again.

It's out of the question
for obvious reasons, so |I...

recommended you and she agreed.

Dr. Freud,
I'm so tired of being sick.

At night, sometimes,

| lie in the dark
and cry for hours.

It's like a prison.

Tell me, uh...

did you have any illness
before your father's death?

The usual childhood ones.
Nothing very serious.

Umhmm.

Once when I was 14,
| was in bed for several weeks.

- Why?
- I couldn't walk.

My legs wouldn't support me.

Father thought it was
one's duty to enjoy life.

He took me everywhere.
We were always together.

| even ran this house
when mother had her accident.

What accident?

She was out driving one day.
Her cart overturned.

She hovered for some time
between life and death.

- How old were you then?
- Thirteen.

It was the happiest time
of my life.

| didn't mean it like that!
Of course I missed mother.

But... I don't know.

Father let me arrange
the flowers at table

and seat the guests.

| could put up my hair
and wear jewelry.

We made a very handsome couple
everybody said.

Six nights of the week
and up till all hours.

- And the seventh?
- Father played Tarock.

He loved that.

| suppose a serious man like you
doesn't approve of card playing.

It happens to be
my favorite game.

| must revise my idea of you.

You said it was the happiest
moment in your life.

Then your mother came home.

And everything was changed.

It was back to hair ribbons
and bed at nine o'clock.

She insisted I be brought up
as a prostitute.

When in fact it was
a house of prostitution.

heard that word?

Putain. Which means
"prostitute” in French.

You're making progress.

Let's go on. Where did we leave
off? Where should we start?

Let's go back to
Red Tower Street.

Christmas time.
You're waiting for your father.

You said it was important,

my remembering
what made me faint. But why?

Could remembering that
help me to walk again?

That was the occasion
of your first attack.

he was out making love
to streetwalkers!

as the cause of her neurosis.

But it could only have
reflected some earlier trauma.

Earlier?

How, in the innocence
of childhood,

could a sexual experience
be traumatic?

Say he is the victim
of an adult's aggression,

I'm tired.

| have other patients.

She walked.

The aggression was
remembered and she walked.

Yet something is wrong.
What about the doll?

It's the evidence of her
father's crime.

She should hate it,

yet she loves and cherishes it.

Yes, something is wrong.

Perhaps the answer lies still
further back, as in my own case.

Yes.

We stopped overnight
in a hotel in Breslau,

to break the journey.

At dawn, we boarded again.

Every time the train whistle
blew, you cried with terror.

You said it was
an animal in pain. A big animal.

| must have heard that same
whistle on the way to Breslau,

and it didn't frighten me.

No.

You only cried on the second
half of the journey.

Then it must've happened
in the compartment.

What?

The trauma.

Whatever incident
it was I connected.

With the whistle
that frightened me so.

- But nothing happened.
- You're sure?

Come.

But you can have me for nothing.

So, it should mean all the more
when I say you mustn't stop.

You mustn't stop, Sigi.

my love,

and above all, hide the good
news from the Philistines.

One night after
I'd done my turn...

| went back to my dressing room

and there was
a man sitting there.

A handsome swell...

with a flower in his buttonhole.

Six weeks later we were married.

to Red Tower Street last night?

| marvel at the ease

with which you suit things
to your own convenience.

Yesterday you condemned parents.
Today, the children are guilty.

There is no guilt
in sexuality at its source.

Only after the river
has passed through cities.

| disapprove of your new theory.
It repels me.

Do you think I'm going to risk
my reputation

as a man and physician,

simply to have my name
on another book?

We could sign our contributions
separately, if you like.

No! I will not be connected
with it in any way!

Well, then,
let's leave the chapter out.

Thank heaven.

In that case,

| shall read it as a paper
at the next Medical Congress.

And end your career
in one night.

Freud.

Sigmund.

Your father asked me
to look after you.

Take his place in your life.

You've accepted me.
I've loved you as a son.

Yes, and I've loved you.

As your spiritual father,
| forbid you to read this paper.

The time comes when one
must give up all one's fathers

and stand alone.

So, before he can understand
or contend with it,

he is consumed with jealousy.

Trapped in a conflict
between love and hate.

There is little new in this.
The ancient Greeks

revealed their knowledge
of these truths

in the story of Oedipus,

who, all unknowing,
killed his father

and took his mother to wife.

And...

And thereafter, was condemned
to wander through life,

blind and homeless.

The shadow of this doom
lies over us all.