Films

PRESENCE OF MIND - THE PSYCHOANALYST MARGARETE MITSCHERLICH

The 87 year old German psychoanalyst Margarete Mitscherlich is astonishingly curious and unprejudiced. She watched and analysed people and their behaviours all her life. She now thinks psychoanalysis is an essential part on the way to finding the truth.

Her main field of research is the German NS (National Socialism) past and the Germans inadequate way of coming to terms with it during the Adenauer era. The defence mechanisms that a single person and whole peoples use against the feeling of guilt and complicity in the face of political crimes is something that Ms Mitscherlich still finds highly fascinating: No change is possible without the grief that comes from the admittance of blame; so her thesis.

The film revolves around the thought processes of a woman who relates her great wisdom to life as it is today. Her psychoanalytic theories are shown as part of this development in a condensed way. While the camera is watching how Ms Mitscherlich's mind is progressing with composure in the head of the viewer an idea is gradually forming of a future.

A film by ARTE / WDR, 2005
45 min. documentary

Director: Birgit Schulz
Editor: Monika Grüter
Photographer: Tom Kaiser, Sibylle Stürmer
Sound: Norbert Schröder
Production Manager: Kerstin Schukowski
Producer: Sabine Müller
Commissioning Editor: Andrea Ernst


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