Begrijpt U Nu Waarom Ik Huil? (1969)
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 65 minuten
Alternative titles: Begrijp Je Nu Waarom Ik Huil? / Now Do You Get It Why I Am Crying?
Country:
Netherlands
Directed by: Louis van Gasteren
Stars: Jan Bastiaans, Dina Telling and Louis van Gasteren
IMDb score:
7,9 (12)
Releasedate: 1 January 1969
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Begrijpt U Nu Waarom Ik Huil? plot
A controversial documentary at the time - described by Van Gasteren as a medical psychological film - follows an approximately 50-year-old ex-concentration camp inmate who undergoes psychotherapeutic treatment with LSD under medical supervision to come to terms with his horrific past. Van Gasteren filmed the man in his home and in the clinic during the first two sessions. These fragments are interspersed with comments from the attending physician. Images of concentration camps illustrate the man's memories.
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Mug
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Van Gasteren was asked by Prof. Jan Bastiaans, then professor of psychiatry in Leiden, to make a documentary about his method of treating war victims through sessions where the drug LSD was administered.
Bastiaan's main goal with the film was to use it as a kind of stage, to give a lecture to students worldwide. The first fifteen minutes of the documentary is a lecture, where Bastiaans explains the theme + treatment in English in a lecture hall and introduces the audience to 'Joop', a war victim and object of study.
What follows is a 40-minute 'summary' of a 5-hour session where Joop is given LSD. Quite intense, full of discomfort, fits of crying (including the title question from Joop to Bastiaans), associations, swearing, and cramped hands.
In the end, of course, we hear from Joop and his wife that the method has been successful and that it has had enormous benefits for the relationships in their family.
No doubt for a short period of time. This documentary was followed up in 2003, The Prize of Survival. Van Gasteren remained in contact with Joop, who died in 2000. His wife + three children open a book about the family situation, which was anything but happy.
Do You Now Understand Why I Cry? was shown on Dutch TV in 1971, which led to red hot phone calls, a social discussion + parliamentary questions. Jan Bastiaans' method was already controversial, in 1992 a patient died during a session. More interesting information about Bastiaans and the use of drugs in psychiatry can be found alhier.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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