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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.

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
“Manipulative” Isn’t Piper’s Story

“Manipulative” is a throwaway description that never tells the whole story. Piper may be manipulative, but really she’s desperate for love (and scared of it). Wily ways to get what she wants, even out and out lies, might seem the best way to go. Especially since openness doesn’t work so well with her mom and…

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CHARLESTON TRAGEDY
Psychotherapy Or Gun Control
For Violent Haters?

Gun control versus mental health intervention for the risk of extreme violence like we saw recently in Charleston? Mental health services aren’t the answer. Therapy takes too long and someone like Dylan Roof would have to know the problem is his for therapy to be effective. Clearly, Dylan Roof has serious psychological problems. The obvious…

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WOMEN BEWARE
“The Narcissist Next Door”
by Jeffrey Kluger

Women Beware. Of the Narcissist. That face that begs for love.* I know. It seems like love. The two of you are amazingly in sync. You’ve found your soul mate. Suddenly, things change. What happened? He’s wonderful, right? There must be something wrong with you. There’s not. A Narcissist is a master at the beginning…

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