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Characters On The Couch

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

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abuse

capernaum - desperation and heartbreak of an abused & neglected boy - finding a voice

CAPERNAUM
Desperation & Heartbreak Of An Abused & Neglected Boy
Finding A Voice

April 3, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Zain is the face of desperation. The poster child for what neglect, abuse, poverty, and heartbreak can do. We watch Nadine Labaki’s film Capernaum – as despair, longing, anguish, the deepest of grief, emotional torture; and finally frustration and rage take over Zain’s otherwise stunning features. But, even more to the point, Zain is the …

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Desperation & Heartbreak Of An Abused & Neglected Boy
Finding A Voice
The Shape of Water A Girl's Muteness A Creature's Aggression & Seemingly Magic Cures

THE SHAPE OF WATER
Seemingly Magic Cures

January 4, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Cruelty and misunderstanding can make you a monster or a mute. Guillermo del Toro’s compelling allegorical fable, The Shape of Water, shows us that quite well. We can say all the obvious things about this multi-layered film set in its backdrop of the Cold War and a high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. There’s loneliness …

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Seemingly Magic Cures
Baby Driver Want to Change? Then Stop Running from the Past

BABY DRIVER
Want to Change?
Then Stop Running From the Past

October 12, 2017 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Baby (Ansel Elgort) wants to change, but … stop running? That’s easier said than done. Especially if you’re a sweet, loving, sensitive kid (that’s Baby in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver), whose cruel dad is responsible for your mom dying as you sit helplessly watching. What do you do with those terrifying memories? You grow up …

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Want to Change?
Then Stop Running From the Past
Finding Vivian Maier Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found

February 19, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The burning question in John Maloof’s poignant and heartbreaking documentary, Finding Vivian Maier is this: did she want to be found? As a psychoanalyst with years of experience working with similarly troubled and traumatized patients, I’d have to say yes and no. There were two sides to Vivian Maier; some saw one, some saw another; some …

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Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found

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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