Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Dangerous Method






Now that my weekend is ahead of me, I went through my shelf of "need-to-be-read" books and finally plucked A Dangerous Method (one I'd been avoiding due to the 'text-book' like contents.) The contents being based around the actual "psychoanalysis/Freud/Jung" events and their work, not exclusively, with a Russian/Jewish patient, Sabina Spielrein.

I am fascinated by this book, that is now a movie with Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley. Psychoanalysis has come a long way from what it used to be, and has evolved into the modern "counseling/therapy" we encounter today. There is way too much for me to summarize here, and I would be rambling on with quotes and passages that would have you snoring... louder than you are now, So!! I will restrain myself to one measly paragraph that stood out to me... at the end of the book.. after a million foot-long words later.... I wanted to share this quote from the afterword in the book, because I find this to be personally true regarding modern counseling/therapy.

"The therapist is a consultant on mental matters, not a director of conscience. Psychoanalysis thus allowed a new kind of silence, a beneficent silence, into the consulting room and thereby enabled a new kind of listening. But in return for the freedom to be oneself, and to be oneself in any way one likes, the patient is burdened with the obligation to be productive. It is up to the patient to provide the material of analysis, not the therapist. The interchange between patient and analysis, furthermore, reflects his motivational history and can be cured either through a more honest act of self-scrutiny than he or she has made heretofore or else through abreacting the pain of his or her accumulated trauma."

A Dangerous Method by John Kerr

In short, nowadays, society is more open about life-styles and our individual sexuality. But the price we pay for that open-ness is accountability, and WE, as individuals hold the responsibility of educating ourselves by reaching out to available resources to help ourselves be responsibly open.

I am going to watch the movie soon, it will probably be different than the book, but "como sea"/ "that's how it is."

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Sincerely,

Read Riding Hood


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571222/

1 comment:

  1. So true. One thing I like about modern psycho-analysis is learning new ways to understand my reactions to life and being responsible for my choices. Thank YOU for your information on this publication and movie.

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