Unconscious Motivation (1949)

★★★★★ · Finally, it's here! Don't wait to get it. · tambora · 2004-12-02

This film served as bookends and occasional signposts in Rick Prelinger's brilliant film "Panorama Ephemera." I eagerly waited for Rick to make the full thing available on the Internet Archive, and after a long wait, it's finally here. Don't miss this film. It may seem overlong, but there's a suspenseful forbidding sparseness that permeates it and makes it nearly impossible to look away. There's no way Don and Clare are actors. All these emotions must be real, and it's the utter reality of it all that makes it so powerful. The story goes like this. The two of them are hypnotized and told a…

★★★★★ · Fascinating work · dynayellow · 2004-11-03

This claims to be the unscripted, unrehearsed filming, and I believe it: you may too, after you watch it. Two students are placed under hypnosis and given a false memory: that as children, they each stole money, and were found out. When they are brought out of the hypnosis, they are suddenly tense and uncomfortable. The person leading the experiment (never seen, only heard), leads them through several tests (ink blot, word association). Absolutely fascination watching these two try to piece together the cause of their anxiety. If these two are actors, they're outstanding ones…

★★★★★ · Curious flick · scrounge · 2005-04-30

This is a "unrehearsed" psychological instructional film. Let me say for the record that I was unconvinced of the authenticity of the experiment during the first quarter of the film. It begins with 2 subjects awakening from hypnosis, apparently feeling well. Shortly after, the shrink returns them to sleep, and creates a little ruckus by suggesting a sub/unconscious stress. They are then awakened, feeling nervous and tense, but don't know why... an interesting psychoanalysis follows that includes a rorschach, word association, and some picture in a book. This movie is on the long side, but is…

★★★★★ · Caught my attention. · david in wales uk · 2007-04-04

I have been interested in psychology for a decade or so and in particular Jungs work. This film seems authentic to me and quite possible given some real hypnosis films I have seen in which post hypnotic suggestions were give and acted on. This film seems a clear validation of how our words and actions are promted by deeper forces and the use of dreams and inkblots to get at the dynamics. I would like to hear the view of anyone else who is interested in this film and if they feel it authentic. Maybe someone knows something about Dr Beck or the students that they could pass on. david

★★★★ · Interesting but somewhat too long. · jafran · 2005-11-02

The subject is very interesting, but some more editing could have gone into this film to make the film's tempo faster and not drag on as much. While I think the students were carefully chosen, I do not think they were actors.

★★★ · "Now I want you to think I'm a sex god" · Spuzz · 2005-02-18

I'd like to put this, and the great "Revival Techniques in Organisms" in a double feature, as both feature "science" in which you're not too sure if your getting a massive hoodwink or not. This film begins with a hypnosis of an attractive woman and a man with caterpillars for eyebrows. This isn't really done well, and it sort of spoils the rest of the movie (not that it could be saved). While under hypnosis, the leader of the experiment tells them they had stolen some money when they were kids, bought some gum with it, then taken away from their mom when they got home. The rest of this film.…