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Characters On The Couch

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

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He Named Me Malala A Father Gives A Daughter Her Voice

HE NAMED ME MALALA
A Father Gives A Daughter
Her Voice

October 6, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Davis Guggenheim’s documentary film, He Named Me Malala, on the life of 18-year-old Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate and activist for the education of girls has opened in theaters to mixed reviews. I haven’t seen it yet, but I will. I’ve been thinking about the part a father plays in whether a daughter loves or hates …

Read moreHE NAMED ME MALALA
A Father Gives A Daughter
Her Voice
The Visit 4 Signs Loss and Guilt are too scary to feel

SHYAMALAN’S THE VISIT
4 Signs Loss And Guilt
Are Too Scary To Feel

September 29, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

M. Night Shyamalan’s new psychological horror film, The Visit, has twists and turns and unexpected surprises that I wouldn’t think of revealing. And, of course, this film has one of Shyamalan’s shock endings – it wouldn’t be a Shyamalan film without it. But for me as a psychoanalyst, there’s something else of more interest. What …

Read moreSHYAMALAN’S THE VISIT
4 Signs Loss And Guilt
Are Too Scary To Feel
Mistress America Going Backwards To Go Forwards That's Psychoanalysis

MISTRESS AMERICA
Going Backward To Go Forward
That’s Psychoanalysis

September 17, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s kooky and touching new film, Mistress America, gives us Brooke Cardenas (Greta Gerwig), a 30-year-old autodidact, full of life and ideas, but stuck. She can’t get her life off the ground. Brooke needs help, but help makes her feel small: “There’s nothing I don’t know about myself. That’s why I can’t …

Read moreMISTRESS AMERICA
Going Backward To Go Forward
That’s Psychoanalysis
Jake Gyllenhaal Demolition and Grieving

JAKE GYLLENHAAL
DEMOLITION
Ways Not to Grieve

September 11, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

I just watched the trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s upcoming 2016 film, Demolition, about the aftermath of his character, Davis’s, sudden loss of his wife, Julia. Loss can take many forms. As the trailer shows, Davis unravels. He can’t pull himself together. His father-in-law tries to encourage him to rebuild his life. To do so, he …

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DEMOLITION
Ways Not to Grieve
99 Homes What Makes Someone Become Who He Hates?

99 HOMES
What Makes Someone Become
Who He Hates?

September 7, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Alert: Possible Spoilers How can someone do exactly to other people what’s been done to him? That’s the big psychological question in Ramin Bahrani’s new film, 99 Homes. How can Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) become the right-hand man to the very real estate developer (Michael Shannon) who callously uses the housing market collapse to repossess and …

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What Makes Someone Become
Who He Hates?
Mark Webber's Secret Movie Shhh...It's About His Mother

MARK WEBBER’S SECRET MOVIE
Shhhh … It’s About His Mother

September 6, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

A good mother can make a bad situation better. I just read Valentina Valentini’s piece in Indie Wire, Mark Webber Wants Your Money But He Can’t Tell You Why, about actor/director Mark Webber’s Kick Starter Campaign. He’s raising money for a movie he’s making about his mother. It’s a secret, but he did give his …

Read moreMARK WEBBER’S SECRET MOVIE
Shhhh … It’s About His Mother
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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.”

Recent Posts

Everything Everywhere All At Once Breaking Out of Someone Else's Box
Nomadland: A Lonely Nomad in the Land of Loss
The Power of the Dog Why Phil Burbank’s Cruelty is About What He Hates in Himself
SOUND OF METAL How Silence Stops A Man From Running

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