Review: Freud on Netflix

Ok this is the first time I’m ever reviewing anything hahaha

So anyway, one of my clients told me “Hey McKing, you should watch Freud on Netflix”

I’m like, why?

“Cause they have hypnotism!”

Right~

But well, since Covid 19 did a bummer to business, and I have spare time, might as well right?

First off, Freud on Netflix is about Sigmund Freud, a real life psychologist (Wiki says neurologist though) back in the 1800s

He is also the founder of psychoanalysis, a method of analysing the subconscious or unconscious mind, such as dream interpretation

Although in history, Sigmund Freud did use hypnotism in his work for some time, he abandon it to focus on psychoanalysis

That’s the brief introduction I will say about Sigmund Freud since I’m reviewing Freud on Netflix

And in case you were wondering why I’m creating this distinction between the two, that’s because while Freud on Netflix did use some historical truth for the show, a lot of it is… well… still a show

Like whether or not he did those same methods of hypnosis, I do not know

But the show is very interesting to me, I like it

Anyway, before you watch it, just to quickly share, it is R21 so there is some gore, blood, sex, nudity, violence etc I think I covered most of the R21 stuff

Also, if you haven’t watched it yet and want to watch it without being spoiled, do save this page and come back here once you finished the series

Guess you want to read more eh?

Now technically there are many ways to review this, from the hypnotic elements (since I’m a hypnotist) as well as the potential hidden messages in the show (I admit I don’t see much but I did spot a potential few?)

I’ll talk about the hypnosis parts first cause the hidden message is quite far fetch too I suppose shrug (I just realize I could have called them Easter Eggs?)

Freud’s method of hypnosis starts off pretty normal, the usual way, although there is one difference, he had no deepeners

Now to understand this, you must first understand there are 2 main schools of hypnosis (to my knowledge anyway)

The traditional style of hypnosis emphasises on relaxation methods, deepening the trances (which we call deepeners) and direct suggestion

The modern style of hypnosis works with light hypnotic trance, allowing the subject to still be aware and conscious while in trance

Freud on Netflix seems to use both… which doesn’t make sense normally hahaha

But well, it’s a show shrug

Why I say this is because the traditional method require the hypnotist to use deepeners to deepen the hypnotic trance

It can be simply, go deep down into relaxation now

Also, usually the “entering into trance” part of hypnosis is a bit longer than just those couple of minutes for the traditional style too

So to me, it’s like he starts with a modern style but does the therapeutic part the traditional way

Technically if you want a higher success rate using a traditional method, you need to use more deepeners *note to any budding hypnotherapists*

Freud later tries something that was suggested by his friend in the series (I have no idea if the friend is also a friend of Sigmund Freud in history) and that is the use of physical touch during a hypnosis session

To be fair, physical touch is very powerful and can aid or hinder a hypnosis session with a client, so use it sparingly (if you are a budding hypnotist)

Be really sure of what you are doing

Think of it this way, if someone was molested or raped before, she may develop aversion to physical touch by anyone, and that will hinder the hypnosis if you attempt to even touch the hand, much less anywhere else

However, someone who doesn’t have this issue, but perhaps have anxiety and nervous tension, may benefit from a firm stead hand on the shoulder, to aid relaxation and hypnosis

If you work with me before, or seen my videos, you will realize I almost never ever use physical touch at all

Personally I don’t want to risk the aversion cases (in case they shy to tell me at first)

So far we touched (pun intended) on 2 things for Freud, so let’s look at something else for a moment

The psychic Fleur!

Now one thing about Freud on Netflix is that there is a touch of supernatural phenomena as well, which is also connected to the villain in the series

And the villain uses hypnosis as well!

No not Fleur obviously, it’s Sophia, the… lady who found her (HA I don’t know whether to call her the mum, the aunt, caretaker etc)

If you want to rewatch, she uses hypnosis on Fleur early on, the physical touch for example, as well as the suggestions of course (that was obvious right?)

But here’s the thing, for her case, because Sophia found Fleur when she was a child, she could program Fleur to go straight into hypnosis instantly through a touch on the shoulder or on the legs

Which brings us back to how Freud touch Fleur on the knees and she went straight into a trance

But yea, it doesn’t means you can touch anyone’s knees and they go into a trance straight away…

Please don’t do that

You will likely be clobbered

Haha

Anyway~ this means the villain Sophia could not have hypnotised Freud so easily when she approached him at his office

And better yet, she uses direct suggestion telling Freud to kill himself

However, you cannot hypnotise someone to go against their ethics or values

It doesn’t work like that

Except in a show hhaa

However, when Sophia hypnotised Leopold to kill himself, that’s slightly different

You see, Leopold was under the influence of hypnotism through Fleur already, so it would have been easier for Sophia to capitalize on that

Also, since he loved his sister so much (to the point of possible incest love? technically he didn’t rape her if I recall) so it was easier to feel bad for doing what he did to her (attempting to kill her) and thus, it is possible for him to kill himself through that logic

So it’s like a battle of the hypnotists, good versus evil

Well ok not so extreme but you get my point

Did Fleur use hypnotism too?

To some extent BUT and it’s a big but, she is a character who is supposed to be a psychic medium

Yet ironically, most of the seances are supposedly fake or set up, it was revealed later in the series

Hence, from a science point of view, Fleur has a split personality or 2 personalities inside her, Fleur and Taltos

From a supernatural point of view, Fleur is a unique shaman of sorts, where Taltos is a supernatural or spiritual entity that resides within her

• We have no confirmation that she can speak with the dead throughout the series

• She does have visions of the murder scenes of the people she has connected with

• She seems to have a power to control people, in particular men

For visions, if through her ritual of connecting and controlling the men, she established an energetic or psychic connection with them, then when they do something that was not “normal”, perhaps she will see such memories, thoughts or visions

Like her first vision of Clara getting lost and a man about to cut or kill her, Clara was still in front of her, but her kidnapper/murderer of a brother Leopold was beside Clara too

From a psychic point of view, because Leopold had such thoughts or intent, Fleur as a psychic was able to read such thoughts and intent and thus, saw a vision

She also had such a vision when she saw the opera singer too

We can say that this ability is clairvoyance

Later on, to reveal more details and information, Fleur seeks out Freud and ask him to hypnotise her, where she was able to retrieve the vision and continue with it as well

Why does this work?

To understand this from a psychology point of view, we take reference from Carl Jung

Carl Jung (a real life psychologist in history too) was influenced by Sigmund Freud, and they worked together for some time before separating due to different ideals and directions

Carl Jung did a lot of things, and one of his ideas is called the collective unconscious

The collective unconscious was his theory that we are all connected in this collective unconscious

Let’s bring hypnosis back a bit, hypnosis is how we bring the conscious into the unconscious area of the mind

And if you didn’t know it already, the mind does not just exists in your brain, it is throughout your body and perhaps even out of your body (some may call this the aura)

Now, if we use hypnotism to bring someone into the unconscious mind, what can happen if we go deeper?

We may tap into the collective unconscious which Carl Jung describe!

Tying this to Freud on Netflix, it’s why Fleur ask Freud to hypnotise her to get back those visions and see more details

As the collective unconscious means that we are all connected, if we can tap into this, just like Fleur, one can see through another’s eyes or memories

Well, only if you believe Carl Jung’s collective unconscious is true, and only if you can tap into this so easily

Although if this is true, that might explain the supernatural power of psychics who can read your mind, your future, your past eh?

And no, I’m not able to tap into this to read minds or whatever you are thinking

However at this point, Fleur’s visions could have either a supernatural or a psychological source

Her ability to control men, if she uses those rituals it is easier to explain

Certain rituals may cause the participants to tap into a hypnotic trace in one way or another

And if you watch the rituals, you will know they are in a trance, it was very obvious to me

Although so much blood sheesh

However, when they show her childhood, where she could just stop the soldiers in their tracks… it can only be a supernatural source

The Taltos in the series

Also, you may realize there were certain words or phrases that were used to activate or deactivate behaviours

Well, yea that is possible but only if the hypnotist set up such a suggestion in the subject

Once again, killing other people or killing oneself is only because it’s a show, a drama, a series, because hypnotic suggestion does not work when it goes against one’s ethics or values

Hmm ok I think I covered most of the hypnotic elements in the show already but if you got any burning questions about the hypnotism in the show, go ahead and ask away 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ll touch on certain psychological aspects of the show

Wait what there’s more?

Oh yes, of course there is more hahahaha

Carl Jung’s collective unconscious was one actually, but I had to share that so we could understand Fleur’s visions

So what else is there?

You may recall Freud having a dream of sorts and he was going a bit crazy somewhat

Well, he had a lot of his own dreams I suppose

Being scolded by his dad, seeing Fleur, etc

One of his visions was him having sexual intimacy with his mum

Yes if you didn’t realize it was his mum, you can watch again or take my word for it

This is with reference to one of Freud’s psychosexual theories – The Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus Complex in short, describes that a male child may develop sexual feelings for his mother and only when he realize his mum and dad are a couple, and transferred such feelings to a girl of his age, then he will develop normally

That also means if the child doesn’t transfer the feelings appropriately, the child may develop sexual disorders

Well, that’s my layman version so you can roughly understand what’s all that about

Also, the term came from Oedipus, a king who killed his father and married his mother in Greek mythology

Lastly, the female version of this complex is called The Electra Complex

Anyway yes that vision or dream that Freud on Netflix had with his mum was with reference to The Oedipus Complex

In fact, even Fleur and Taltos could be a reference to one of Carl Jung’s psychological theories too – The Shadow Self

Simply put, Carl Jung believed that all of us have a side we show in public – The Persona whereas the Shadow Self is what is hidden, repressed or unknown

He also stated that the Shadow is our hidden desires, instincts and more

If Fleur is the normal woman seen in society, Taltos is the darker animalistic side

If we don’t count the supernatural bit haha

On top of that, Fleur (or Taltos) influenced a bunch of people, and of those bunch, we had a few unable to control their repressed animalistic instincts and desires!

Leopold, the Crown Prince Rudolf, the opera singer, just to name a few

In a way, they had their Shadow self on display and that’s how the plot thickens for the show too haha

I’ll share one more that I was thinking of

The Id, Ego, Superego is a theory of Sigmund Freud to describe how the mind works

Where the Id describes the emotional instinct, the wants and desires

The Ego controls the wants and desires within the logic of what’s right and what’s wrong

The Superego describes the morals and values, what’s right and wrong

Id: I want it now!

Superego: But I don’t have money

Ego: Let me plan how much to save so I can buy it eventually

Hope that helps 🙂

Now why did I bring this in?

Here’s my thoughts

Taltos is the Id, instinct, desires, power

Fleur is the Superego, having to comtemplate the morals and values

Freud is the Ego, to find that balance in using that power for right or wrong

Previously it was Sophia who was in the place of Ego but when Fleur realizes that Sophia is not doing for her own good, that people are dying (morals and ethics), she seeks out someone who can help (Freud)

Also, the names of Freud and Fleur are very similar hahaha

Ok ok this might be a bit far fetched hahaha

That’s what connected for me while I was watching the show ahahaha

Anyway this article is almost 2500 words!

So I’ll stop soon

How did you find my review?

Admittedly I could have shared a bit more but I didn’t want to write too long hahaha

Let me know if you want more of such reviews in the future!

Like hypnosis series, movies or similar

And if you have any questions about Freud on Netflix, you are most welcome to ask me 🙂

And remember to share with your friends if this might be up their alley

Til then, cheers and I’ll see you soon