Psychoanalysis: A Dangerous Method Meets Taxi Driver
The psychoanalytic approach can be considered a most “dangerous method” as it can make a patient unearth self-deprecating irrational ideas they firmly believe, coupled with its ability to sidetrack a patient from what they want to improve. On the other hand, psychoanalysis is designed to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association.
In this capacity, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method can be cogitated through the lens of a psychoanalytic theoretical approach. Within the film, Sabina Spielrein’s hysteria disorder is a traumatic element of her life, stemming from childhood when she was beaten by her father and abused by her family. Notably, an important aspect of the film is Sigmund Freud’s new method of psychoanalysis on the hysteria-ridden patient, Sabina Spielrein.
Freud’s use of analogical thinking penetrates the unconscious mind using symbols and metaphors, which aims to treat mental disorders. However, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory affects both the patient and the doctor, Carl Jung, throughout the treatment. Revealing the adverse effects of psychoanalysis, a “dangerous method” that sidetracks both the patient and the doctor.
In this case, Jung is influenced by another patient, Otto Gross, and engages in a sexual relationship with Sabina Spielrein against his ethics. This is an iteration of Sabina Spielrein’s unconscious mind connecting with her conscious mind. Her lack of sexual liberty and repressed sexual feelings get brought out with Dr. Carl Jung.
In her childhood, Sabina Spielrein’s authoritative father humiliated her and beat her, which made her sexually aroused subconsciously. This connects sexuality to her emotional disorder. Sabina Spielrein’s sexual desire to be beaten shifts from her unconscious mind to her conscious mind when Carl Jung begins preforming this action on her.
The repressed trauma of Sabina’s father beating during her childhood is discovered through free association, a key element of the psychoanalytic approach. There is a similarity between Sabina’s father beating her as an authoritative figure and Carl Jung beating her as her superior. In both cases, Sabina Spielrein is the subordinate and both cases reveal her unconscious feelings and desires. Specifically, her desire to be beaten, which is made ostensible through the interaction of her repressed memories into her conscious mind.
Another film that can be considered through a psychoanalytic approach is Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle’s unconscious feeling of loneliness is conjured up through imagery and symbols. Most notably, the taxi he drives is a motif that represents Travis Bickle’s loneliness. Travis Bickle cannot hear what his taxi customers say, but he is involved with them as a voyeur.
This motif emphasizes the isolation that Travis Bickle feels. The Taxi travels through New York City every day, but Travis Bickle never interacts with the outside world. Instead, he remains in the confined taxi, the glass windows separating him from his exterior environment. This is an unconscious element of Travis Bickle’s character that is revealed through the motif of the taxi cab. Travis Bickle’s taxi roams the street seeking company, just as Travis Bickle himself roams the streets seeking companionship.
As an anti-social observer in society, Travis Bickle’s loneliness is revealed subconsciously through imagery and symbolism in different segments of the film. One example is that Travis Bickle regularly attending pornography theatres at night. An action he repeats regularly, almost unconsciously, which reveals a conscious desire for companionship. Uncovered through these theatre scenes is Travis Bickle’s thoughts and desires to escape his emptiness and loneliness. He represses his loneliness by being part of large groups of people, both in the taxi cab and in the theatre, yet he is in his own world and all alone when he does so.
Relatedly, Travis Bickle’s television is a symbol for his fixation on the life he cannot have. Instead of integrating with society, he is living his own life in isolation. The use of analogical thinking enters Travis Bickle’s unconscious mind using symbols. In a psychoanalytic approach the symbols of Travis Bickel’s Taxi, the porn theatre, and his television illustrate his immense feeling of loneliness and isolation from society.
Travis Bickel’s alienation forces him to look inward, he smashes his television in one scene, symbolically terminating the social world which is alienated from. In contrast, Sabina Spielrein embraces her repressed fears from childhood by allowing Carl Jung to beat her, which is the very thing she subconsciously feared her authoritative father doing to her.
