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How a psychologist thinks about your favorite

Film & TV characters.

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Welcome to Characters On The Couch, my Film & Television site, where I delve into character psychology. If you’re interested in psychology, film, or a combination of the two, I bring my insights into your favorite contemporary and classic characters. I hope to help you understand their deeper psychological motivations (and, maybe, even your own).

When you think about truly iconic films, do you wonder what gives them such staying power? Is it the time of your life when you watched them? Is it the costumes or images that seemed unforgettable? Did one or more characters align with your struggles or painful experiences? Did you feel along with them?  Or maybe, it’s simply that the film pulled at your heart and caused you to explore emotions in a new and profound way?

I say it’s all of the above. And, in the same way, when these meaningful elements are missing, a story becomes forgettable. I hope this site will encourage you to transform your story, personal or in writing, into magic by finding the human thread that links it and you to a universal experience.

Everything in life ties us back to complex emotions and the rhythm and language of feelings and psychology. I'll offer your that language of feeling in my blog as I write about the human struggles in each film.

LEO HURWITZ
DISCOVERY IN A PAINTING 1969
Seeing & Imagining

Leo Hurwitz’s 29-minute film, Discovery in a Painting (Watch Film), is a beautiful sampling of his personal passion for seeing. Filmed at MoMA in New York City, this film is one of the various ways Leo explores the importance of seeing with open eyes. For Leo, seeing doesn’t just involve seeing what is there. More…

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LEO HURWITZ
THE ART OF SEEING 1968-1970
THIS ISLAND
Seeing With Our Hearts

This Island, a Leo Hurwitz film (Watch Film)- directed and edited by Leo with co-editor Peggy Lawson and cameraman Manfred Kirchheimer – is a film about a museum: The Detroit Institute of Art. But, This Island isn’t just about a museum. It’s about discovering the meaning in art. And, that requires looking deeply and openly…

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LEO HURWITZ
THE ART OF SEEING 1968 – 1970
DISCOVERY IN A LANDSCAPE
“I Will Look With Your Eyes
You Will See With Mine”

Seeing isn’t a simple thing. It often takes another person’s eyes to help us understand something in a new way. This is how Leo Hurwitz uses his eyes and camera in his The Art of Seeing series with its three films, Light And The City, Discovery In A Landscape, and This Island. In these films,…

Read More about LEO HURWITZ THE ART OF SEEING 1968 – 1970 DISCOVERY IN A LANDSCAPE “I Will Look With Your EyesYou Will See With Mine”