Freud's Last Session

From the essay The Question of God by Armand Nicholi, to the drama by Mark St. Germain, to the film by Matt Brown, a philosophical duel entrusted to two masterful interpreters on the question of God. Morality, sexuality as pleasure of all kinds and as research of happiness, the dimension of dreams, nostalgia, the obstinacy to replicate the past and the time of childhood. And again, pain, suffering, free will, man's loneliness and fear. To be terrified because we realize that we have no control over everything we believe we can control or to be terrified because we realize, in the end, that there is no God? Is it true that, finally, we are all cowards?

Of all the very noble and refined dispute, only one certainty remains: the truth is a conquest that proceeds step by step, always partial, always in progress, which makes doubt a propellant and error the opportunity to redefine the direction and recalculate the path to the next discovery. Alone or not, God or not, the human mind is undoubtedly the greatest and yet unrevealed mystery.

Two days after the German invasion of Poland, C.S. Lewis travels to London from Oxford to meet Sigmund Freud, who was forced to flee Austria the year before following the Anschluss. During their afternoon together the two discuss the salient facts of their lives and Freud presses Lewis to know more about his childhood, his conversion to Catholicism encouraged by J. R. R. Tolkien, the traumas of the First World War, his relationship with the mother of one of his comrade and relationship with the Inklings. The question of faith – fundamental for Lewis, a neurosis for Freud – divides them profoundly. Freud himself lets his insecurities shine through: terminally ill with cancer, he suffers from atrocious pain that only morphine can alleviate and his physical suffering is combined with concern for his daughter Anna, morbidly attached to him and involved in a romantic relationship with Dorothy. Burlingham which Freud disapproves of. Three weeks later Freud was euthanized by his doctor to put an end to his suffering.

Great actors for great themes.