Posts by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen
LOSING GROUND
When A Call For ‘Mama’
Is Unanswered
What is lurking below the surface of a highly intellectualized philosophy professor’s emotional control? We find out in Losing Ground, filmed in 1982 but recently released by Milestone Films, noteworthy for being the first feature-length film produced and directed by a Black American woman. Kathleen Collins, who died an early death of cancer in 1988,…
Read More
CAROL
The Questions &Answers
Love Can Bring
Carol, directed by Todd Haynes, starring Cate Blanchett as Carol and Rooney Mara as Therese, is a story of love. More deeply, though, Carol is a story about why we’re drawn to love a certain person. In each attraction, something missing is sensed and desired in the other. Love can bring us to ourselves in a…
Read More
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Why A Replacement Child
Must Face His Brother’s Death
Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2016 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Look Of Silence, is a riveting exploration of the Indonesian genocide’s complicated psychological aftermath. In 1965-1967, the military dictatorship killed over a million assumed Communists opposed to their rule. In the film, we follow the Rukun family, centered on 44-year-old Adi, all unable to grieve the brutal murder of…
Read More
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE OSCARS 2016
And The Winners Are …?
I am a psychoanalyst who loves my work. I am also intrigued by what the characters in film can tell us about real human problems. This season, I’ve closely watched and written about all the Best Picture Nominees for the Oscars 2016. I’ve also written pieces on several of the nominated documentaries and some of the films with nominated actors and actresses.…
Read More
THE MARTIAN
Trauma Of Abandonment
Self-Sufficiency Or Connection?
Director Ridley Scott’s film, The Martian, tells the story of NASA astronaut Mark Watney’s (Matt Damon) accidental abandonment on the barren planet of Mars. Early childhood abandonment also creates a desolate emotional landscape. People can’t be trusted. Hope is fractured. On Mars, Mark has two things to turn to 1. distasteful music of Commander Lewis’…
Read More
BRIDGE OF SPIES
A Standing Man
How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear
Steven Spielberg’s powerful film, Bridge of Spies, asks some compelling psychological questions. Could there be two more different men than a Brooklyn lawyer in 1957 at the height of the Cold War and an alleged Russian spy – or are they different at all? And, if they aren’t, what is it exactly that forms an unexpected…
Read More