Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

also dangerous, inviting at least three
significant risks.
The first would have been to reduce
an exceptionally complex intellectual
debate into some sort of rhetorical
showdown; the second would have
been to take sides between the two
men, turning the movie into an apology
of one side or the other. The third
would have been to make an impossibly
boring film: philosophical debates
make for great university classes, but
for a movie one needs action, plot, and
character.
Somehow, “Last Session” manages to
avoid all three. It is a film that does not
tell you what to think about God — it
tells you how to think about him. In
other words, it shows what elements
should be put into the equation required
to solve the “God problem.”
The characters’ discussion of God
(and many other subjects) is not just
an exchange of learned opinions, but
features flashbacks and references to
their own lives. Freud, for example,
tackles the problem of suffering (a
theme Lewis dedicated entire books to)
by recalling the premature death of his
daughter and grandson. The issue of
paternity and the father-son relationship
is discussed with reference to the two
characters’ fathers, and to Freud’s own
relationship with his daughter, Anna.
The result demonstrates an important
truth: that the question of God
is inextricably linked with how we
interpret the facts, the events of our
lives. As Lewis suggests at the end of the
film, God is everywhere, the world is
crowded with him, yet he is incognito.
We can recognize his presence or be
completely blind to it, depending on
our disposition.
In this “Last Session,” both characters
get to play the role of the analyst, and
both recline on Freud’s famous couch
as patients. Both are faced with the discrepancies
between what they preach
and how they live, and the film does
not shy away from the most controversial
aspects of their lives.
At the time, Lewis lived with a much
older woman, the mother of a friend
deceased in World War I. Questioned
by Freud about this relationship, Lewis
refuses to provide a definitive answer,
but the film seems to imply they were
lovers (a topic of disagreement among
Lewis’ biographers).
The film is merciless in its portrayal of
Freud’s dysfunctional relationship with
his last daughter, Anna, who followed
in his footsteps to become a major
figure in child psychoanalysis. Her
relationship with him, as Freud himself
admits to Lewis, is at the root of her
lesbianism, of which Freud disapproves.
He blocks the advancement of her
career, keeps her away from relationships
with both men and women, and
tyrannically demands her constant
presence and attention.
It does not take a Dr. Freud to understand
she needs a break from him, but
Freud selfishly denies her the freedom
his treatment is supposed to provide.
But the most important element in the
equation arrives when the discussion
shifts to the topic of Freud’s impending
death. “You believe you can outthink
your fear by hiding behind your desk in
your den of gods. But the truth is you
are terrified,” Lewis attacks.
But Freud reminds Lewis of his terror
in front of death in a previous scene,
when the two took refuge in a bomb
shelter during what turned out to be
a false air-raid alarm.
You did not seem too
eager to meet your
creator then, Freud
adds.
“Because you know
beyond all your fairy
tales that he does not
exist,” Freud tells him.
“You see, you bury
your doubts, your
memories of the war,
but at the core of your
being, you are a coward.
We are all cowards
before death.”
Thankfully, this film
will be a disappointment
to those who
wanted to see Lewis
destroy Freud and his
arguments (or vice
versa). If there’s one
takeaway from “Last
Session,” it’s that it is imperative for
each man to question himself about the
existence of God — and that finding
the answer is not easy.
As Freud understood, we are all
conditioned by our desires, traumas,
and complex personal histories, and
tempted to fashion a god with the attributes
of our earthly fathers. Lewis, for
example, grew up with an absentee father,
leading him to search for a father
in heaven to replace his missing one.
But the same preconditioning, the
film suggests, goes in the opposite
direction. Freud’s hatred of his father
compelled him to deny the existence
of God no less than Lewis’ desire for a
father figure prompted him to imagine
a divine one.
By the end of the film, Freud admits
that “it was madness to think that we
could solve the greatest mystery of all
times.” “There is a greater madness,”
Lewis replies, “not to think of it at all.”
“The real trouble” he adds, “is to
come awake, to stay awake” to the possibility
of his existence. This intelligent
film can help with this endeavor.
Stefano Rebeggiani is an associate
professor of classics at the University of
Southern California.
Sigmund Freud in
1921. | WIKIMEDIA
COMMONS/MAX
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January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 29