A fascinating early attempt to illustrate Freudian psychoanalysis on film, Secrets of a Soul follows the case history of a man (Werner Krauss) driven into a state of terror by a dream in which he attempts to stab his wife. The film illustrates elements of his fantasies and memories as they are revealed in interviews with an analyst. Though G. W. Pabst is already the “cool observer” of his later films, Secrets of a Soul is filled with strikingly beautiful images and bravura film technique: knives, doors, stairs, and ladders are presented in double and triple exposure, as examples of the contents of this afflicted mind.