Sigmund Freud held steadfast to the notion that inside all human psyches is a sexual animal ready to get freaky. David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” tastefully fuses an intellectual and personal exploration of this idea.

The film follows the strained relationship between psychology trailblazers Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and their work with an unstable Russian woman named Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley.).

The movie’s dialogue maintains a professorial tone and does not patronize the audience, but subtly gives meanings to terminology to make the somewhat pretentious discussions accessible.

Fassbender’s strained expressions show the emotional degradation that gives a face to the theories discussed in the film.

The transitions between his portrayal of Jung’s high-brow discussions of repression and scenes of him acting out bizarre fantasies with Spielrein strongly display the personal battle between Jung’s brain and his urges. Essentially, there’s a lot of spanking.

Cronenberg steps away from using Mortensen as a bathhouse-tussling, coffee pot slinger and fits him comfortably into the academic world as the father of psychoanalysis. Mortensen’s sly tone gives Freud a cavalier wisdom as he overlooks the dissenting opinions of Jung in a way that effectively presents a tense dynamic.

While the movie is strong in its precise dialogue and acting, there are some elements that are left hanging. The relationship between Spielrein and Jung dominates, overshadowing the intriguing yet underdeveloped relationship between Jung and Freud.

Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” asks hard questions about the human psyche and does justice to the strange inception of the concepts that line the pages of psychology textbooks today.

“A Dangerous Method” focuses too much on displaying a wide historical context, leaving little room for the creation of a more complete human element.