Analysis: a new film on the founder of psychoanalysis explores the role of religion and belief in an era of scientific rationality
Although he died over 80 years ago, Sigmund Freud continues to captivate the imaginations of artists and writers. Some recent treatments, such Netflix's series Freud, bear little resemblance to the life, experiences or theories of the founder of psychoanalysis. Others, such as David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and Ronan Brady’s remarkable RTÉ radio drama The Silent Passenger explore the conflicts and controversies that arose during the early years of the development of psychoanalysis.
The latest forthcoming cinematic depiction, Freud's Last Session has strong Irish contributions. Dublin-based Subotica Films are co-producers, Screen Ireland have executive producer credits, Irish actors Orla Brady and Pádraic Delaney have significant roles and it was partly shot in Ireland.
Trailer for Freud's Last Session
Freud's Last Session depicts a fictional encounter between Freud and the Belfast-born writer, academic and Christian, C.S. Lewis. Freud is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, who previously played Lewis in Shadowlands. The movie is based on a play by Mark St. Germain, which was inspired by the teaching and writing of psychiatrist and Harvard medical professor Armand Nicholi who juxtaposed Freud and Lewis’ thinking in his teaching, writing and media work as a way to explore the role of faith in an era of scientific rationality.
Freud’s thinking was often a product of its time, but much of his theories are the foundation from which various approaches in psychoanalysis developed and diverged. He was a committed atheist who saw religion as a shared obsessional neurosis that emerged from a fantasy about all powerful father figure who could protect believers from anxieties about death.
A scientist by training who was fascinated with Darwin’s theories, and lived and worked in a Vienna that was profoundly anti-clerical before his expulsion by the Nazis, Freud's experiences of casual anti-semitism certainly influenced his view of organised religion. However, scholars of Freud’s work, such as the psychoanalyst and philosopher Jonathan Lear often comment that his views on faith and the existence of God are the least valuable aspect of his work because they present a view of believers which is not based on clinical evidence. This view appears to have been shared by the various psychoanalytical communities who tend to take a more balanced view of the importance of religious belief.
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From RTÉ lyric fm's Movies and Musicals, Aedín Gormley analyses Anthony Hopkins playing Sigmund Freud in Freud's Last Session
Recent comparative studies have found that integrating a client’s understanding of their faith tradition with their course of psychotheraphy produces significant improvements in mental health. Scientific journals such as Spirituality in Clinical Practice communicate the latest developments in research and practice that explores spiritually oriented psychotherapy. Having spiritual or religious beliefs in other words, is not an obstacle to becoming a psychoanalyst.
On the other hand, what does does religion make of psychoanalysis? Pseudo-therapeutic practices such as 'conversion therapies’ have been used by certain religious groups to falsely identify some sexual orientations as something which an individual should be cured from might suggest that psychoanalysis has been appropriated by some to use it in a way that it was never intended. Psychoanalysis has not been alone in this regard: religions often attract people who distort messages of love and compassion into excuses for cruelty and exclusion.
The majority of religions have largely accepted, if not embraced, the idea of working with the unconscious as a means to improving mental health and spiritual fulfilment. Jesuit spiritual exercises have been seen as akin to a directed form of Freudian ‘free-association’, so it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that Pope Francis underwent a lengthy period of psychoanalysis.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drama On One, Ronan Brady's The Silent Passenger tells the story of Freud's escape from the Nazis in 1938. Barry Mc Govern plays Freud and Stephen Brennan is Carl Jung.
So, if there has been a general rapprochement between religion and psychoanalysis, why would a film about Freud and a believer be of interest? The answer lies in the actual believer: C.S. Lewis. Freud was not hostile to religious people and had a longstanding friendship with Lutheran pastor and psychoanalyst Oskar Pfister. More famously, he had a bitter, and permanent, personal and professional falling out with Carl Jung over the latter’s attempt to integrate spiritual and mythical aspects of the human experience as way to heal clients through a sense of inner completeness.
Jung saw these elements as aspects of a more general ‘collective unconscious’ rather than an independently existing entities outside human comprehension. As a result his work later became hugely influential in the New Age spirituality movement which in turn influenced many aspects of contemporary working life. But this ‘self-spirituality’ involves individuals trying to find their own path, often by mixing and matching ideas from different traditions, rather than following an established tradition.
The Lewis who meets Freud in Freud’s Last Session is an advocate of Anglican theology, but is perhaps more interesting because of his scars. He lost his mother as a child, had a troubled relationship with his father and underwent a highly traumatic experience serving in the trenches of the first World War which severely impacted his mental health. The Freud which the fictional Lewis meets has also endured immense suffering; his beloved daughter Sophie had died during the Spanish Flu epidemic, his family were bullied by the Nazis and eventually fled to London where his painful oral cancer grew increasingly unbearable.
From American Film Institute, director Matt Brown discusses the making of Freud's Last Session
Lewis had been an atheist for many years, but gradually returned to the faith of his upbringing. He was familiar with Freud’s writing - even playfully caricaturing him in one publication. His Screwtape Letters, in which a demon mentors his nephew on how to corrupt a soul, uses many tactics which align with Freud’s concept of our unconscious drives.
Although Freud was a committed and confirmed atheist, family accounts and his letters suggest a more considered view of faith and religion. His contemporary, William James (whom he met briefly only once), recognised not only are there many forms of religion, there are many forms who religious experience, which not only change over the course of one’s lifetime, but can even change over the course of a day!
If there has been a general rapprochement between religion and psychoanalysis, why would a film about Freud and a believer be of interest?
It can be convenient to see religious believers as a monolithic mass who slavishly believe in ‘one thing’, but James opened up new avenues for thinking about ourselves which are more dynamic. We can only speculate on what would have emerged if they had the opportunity to collaborate, particularly as we are witnessing the first significant demographic shifts in the landscape of religious practice and experience in Ireland.
Freud’s Last Session is set at a particular moment in history: the encounter between Lewis and Freud occurs at a time when misinformation had led to the victimisation of groups throughout Europe, and families were forced to flee from their homes as refugees. War was suddenly a reality again. Perhaps at this moment we need to hear a conversation between two people who had direct experience of these realities, as they try to find ways to end the suffering of their fellow human beings through listening, compassion and tolerance.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
