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Characters On The Couch

How a psychologist thinks about your favorite Film & TV characters.

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Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Killer Voices In Your Head

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Killer Voices In Your Head…

January 23, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Quentin Tarantino, in his brilliantly conceived and “executed” Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, has turned the tides on one of the most horrific events in Hollywood history. The Manson family murders of Sharon Tate, her unborn baby, and her friends, on a night that robbed them of their futures. Yet, what interests me most …

Read moreONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Killer Voices In Your Head…
Parasite Hunger and Humiliation Gone Wild

PARASITE
Hunger & Humiliation Gone Wild

January 23, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Hunger can lead to desperate acts. And, it does –  in Bong Joon-Ho’s startling new film, Parasite. Plus, we find. if you’re hungry and helpless (emotionally, that is), you can even become a parasite. The kind of hunger we witness in many of Parasite’s characters leads to various forms of exploitation – of the class …

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Hunger & Humiliation Gone Wild
Marriage Story Could This Marriage Have Been Saved If So Then How

MARRIAGE STORY
Could This Marriage Be Saved?
If Yes, Then How?

January 22, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

It’s a very sad Marriage Story. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) haven’t stopped loving each other. But, Nicole doesn’t know how to do their marriage anymore. The only answer seems to be divorce. Yet, is it? Noah Baumbach’s film, in all its unearthing of the many deeper questions not yet answered, shows us …

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Could This Marriage Be Saved?
If Yes, Then How?
Brooklyn How Love Heals Homesickness & A Difficult Mother

BROOKLYN
How Love Heals Homesickness
& A Difficult Mother

January 3, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Has it really been 4 years since John Crowley and Nick Hornby’s film, Brooklyn, hit the big screen? And, why is it still a movie that speaks to us and that we keep going back to? Is it because it’s the versatile and talented Saorise Ronan’s first major film? Or because we all know, somewhere …

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How Love Heals Homesickness
& A Difficult Mother
Pain and Glory Pain Of A Mother's Disappointment Glory in Getting Free

PAIN AND GLORY
Pain Of A Mother’s Disappointment
Glory In Getting Free

December 12, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Salvador Mallo, Almodovar’s tortured filmmaker in his new film Pain and Glory, was once a happy boy. And, his beautiful mother, Jacinta, carefree and loving; until they moved to a cave. Slowly, young Salvador (although not consciously aware) begins to carry a heavy burden: his mother’s bitter unhappiness. Jacinta’s growing discontent with her life, with …

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Pain Of A Mother’s Disappointment
Glory In Getting Free
The Silence (1963) Ingmar Bergman Why Silence Can Be Loud and Lonely

THE SILENCE
Ingmar Bergman (1963)
Why Silence Can Be Loud & Lonely

November 6, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Silence isn’t always golden. Not in Ingmar Bergman’s book. And, his various film treatises on silence speak to us loudly on many planes of emotional existence, and those planes are never smooth. Of course, silence can provide a necessary space for personal truths to appear. For imaginings to ripen and take hold. Or, a respite …

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Ingmar Bergman (1963)
Why Silence Can Be Loud & Lonely
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Inspiration

“We come to Film and TV to find our hidden stories. If we look deeply into a character’s psyche, there is much to see about ourselves.”

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