Characters on the Couch
Film & Television Blog
by Dr. Sandra Cohen
NICKEL BOYS: Holding On to Your Self Even When Abused
How do you hold onto yourself amid threat, abuse, and constant attempts to make you feel “less than?” Elwood Curtis does, in RaMell Ross’s powerful, disturbing, and timely 2024 film, Nickel Boys. Abuse can tear a person down. Create hopelessness, despair, and resignation. Repeated abuse, with no way to protect yourself, makes it difficult for…
THE SUBSTANCE: A Sad Gory Story of a Woman’s Self-Hate
Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging yet beautiful actress, hates herself. That’s why The Substance is a sad, gory story of a woman’s self-hate. Self-loathing always stems from early trauma. And, both childhood trauma and self-hate are devastating. You never feel good enough, are vulnerable to feelings of rejection, and do everything you can to prove you’re…
A REAL PAIN: To Numb or Not to Numb?
Numbing pain is not a conscious choice. It’s a common survival strategy, a self-protection from emotional overwhelm, during and after trauma. And, it is often passed down for generations. Take cousins Benji and Dave, for example, in Jesse Eisenberg’s film, A Real Pain. They both struggle with their feelings in very different ways, revealed in…
