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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.

MAD MEN Season 7 Finale
Sally & Her Brothers
Children Who Can’t Grieve

We’re all still talking about Mad Men Season 7 Finale. And, yes, I agree – the characters often hit close to home with many of life’s painful realities. Yet, I have to say that the tongue-in-cheek jingle at Mad Men’Season 7 Finale was a bit too disturbing. Leaving Sally (Kiernan Shipka) doing dishes in the…

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GIRLS OCD #4
Help I’d Give Hannah
Since I’m Not Dr. Rice

Dr. Rice didn’t get Hannah at all. Season 2, It’s Back, leaves Hannah obsessively counting in 8’s. She needs a different kind of help. If Hannah was in therapy with me, I’d listen closely to her conflicting and ever-shifting feelings. To her “I need your help. No, I’m fine.” “I’m sad. No, I’m not.” This…

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WHILE WE’RE YOUNG
What Josh’s Alter Ego Teaches Him

Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young is much more than a look at how youth wants to outdo the old. How the older envy youth. Or, how a mid-life crisis leads to all kinds of desperate shenanigans. It’s also the story of 40-something Josh (Ben Stiller) who can’t move forward for complex psychological reasons. And, of…

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