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Characters On The Couch

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

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roma-betrayal-loss-managing-grief

ROMA
Betrayal & Loss
2 Ways Of Managing Grief

February 11, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Grief is a complex thing. Each of us grieves in our own way and for our own reasons. Alfonso Cuaron’s sensitive and compelling Roma, tells the story of Cleo, a domestic employee, and her employer, Ms. Sofia. We follow two very different women linked together in parallel universes of betrayal and loss. Two women with …

Read moreROMA
Betrayal & Loss
2 Ways Of Managing Grief
Vice: Tyrants, Bullies, & Childhood Trauma

VICE
Tyrants & Bullies
What Do These 2 Have To Do With Childhood Trauma?

February 11, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

What makes someone greedy; heartless; manipulative; and corrupt? So hungry for power that anything goes; even law; morality; & a daughter? Adam McCay’s Vice doesn’t answer questions of what or why. Vice tells the story of who and how. Yet, let’s for a moment think about Dick and Lynne Cheney as two parts of one …

Read moreVICE
Tyrants & Bullies
What Do These 2 Have To Do With Childhood Trauma?
the-green-book-life-friendship-love-characters-on-the-couch

THE GREEN BOOK
What Do 2 Unlikely Travel Companions Teach Each Other
About Life & Friendship & Love?

February 3, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Peter Farrelly’s The Green Book poses a challenging question: what do 2 unlikely road companions possibly have to teach each other? A lot … even about friendship and love. But, with all their obvious differences, it’s an emotionally rocky road trip to get there. One of the 2 is Dr. Donald Shirley, a classically trained …

Read moreTHE GREEN BOOK
What Do 2 Unlikely Travel Companions Teach Each Other
About Life & Friendship & Love?
The Favourite How Envy Plays A Part In Sexual Favors To A Queen

THE FAVOURITE
How Envy Plays Its Part
In Sexual Favors To A Queen?

January 10, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The historical jury is out as to whether Queen Anne of England (1702 -1714) and her two ladies were actual lovers. Yet, sex makes for a good story; and sex wields power – in both what it has to offer and withhold. Envy, though, is the real name of the sexual game at the center …

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How Envy Plays Its Part
In Sexual Favors To A Queen?
Leave No Trace What Happens When Trust Is Shattered

LEAVE NO TRACE
What Happens When Trust
Is Shattered?

October 21, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace is a story about trauma and distrust. That might not be the most obvious thing in this compelling film about a Vietnam Vet and his 13-year-old daughter who live in hiding in a park forest outside Portland, Oregon. But for me, as a psychoanalyst, it is the film’s heart. Will …

Read moreLEAVE NO TRACE
What Happens When Trust
Is Shattered?
Operation Finale How One Man's Trauma Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

OPERATION FINALE
One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

September 27, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Peter Zvi Malkin’s Holocaust trauma worked in his favor to capture Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s Chief Executioner; Head of the SS Office of Jewish Affairs, and the Architect of the Final Solution. At least that’s the Hollywood version of the story. It makes sense as PTSD goes. And, although Chris Weitz’s Operation Finale invented the dialogue …

Read moreOPERATION FINALE
One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann
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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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