Characters on the Couch
Film & Television Blog
by Dr. Sandra Cohen
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’…
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…
MAD MAX FURY ROAD
Depression &
Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind
Opportunists in the mind take over in states of emotional deprivation. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) in Director George Miller’s western style post apocalyptic film, Mad Max:Fury Road, is a good example. As a psychoanalyst who treats severe depressive states, I found this film a fascinating allegorical tale of the conditions under which mental tyrants take over,…
