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Characters On The Couch

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

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betrayal

Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman, Cold Mother and a Sentence To A Lonely Life

WILD STRAWBERRIES
(Ingmar Bergman 1957)
Cold Mother Stops Emotional Time
& Sentences A Boy To Loneliness

March 18, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

“One sleeps in one’s childhood’s shoes,” Bergman remembers Swedish poet Maria Wine, saying, and “that was the real starting point of Wild Strawberries.” (p. 212*) It’s true. And, some live inside the echoes of a cold mother. Every psychoanalyst knows how our childhoods slumber within each waking and dreaming moment of our lives, creating their …

Read moreWILD STRAWBERRIES
(Ingmar Bergman 1957)
Cold Mother Stops Emotional Time
& Sentences A Boy To Loneliness
roma-betrayal-loss-managing-grief

ROMA
Betrayal & Loss
2 Ways Of Managing Grief

February 11, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Grief is a complex thing. Each of us grieves in our own way and for our own reasons. Alfonso Cuaron’s sensitive and compelling Roma, tells the story of Cleo, a domestic employee, and her employer, Ms. Sofia. We follow two very different women linked together in parallel universes of betrayal and loss. Two women with …

Read moreROMA
Betrayal & Loss
2 Ways Of Managing Grief
The Revenant Humanizing Revenge

THE REVENANT
Humanizing Revenge

January 14, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

As much as I loved Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, I can’t say I felt the same about The Revenant. I know the film won big at the Golden Globes and has received Oscar nods for Best Picture and Best Actor. Perhaps that’s because a fantasy lives deep inside us about exacting revenge where we believe revenge …

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Humanizing Revenge
The Girl in the Train What's in an Obsession?

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
What’s In An Obsession?

August 11, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Paula Hawkins’ New York Times bestselling novel, The Girl On The Train, gives us Rachel – a girl obsessed. There’s no question this novel is a mind-bending murder mystery par excellence. But, for me as a psychoanalyst, it poses a more interesting question. What’s behind Rachel’s obsession? Rachel Watson rides the train every day. She …

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What’s In An Obsession?
Wayward Pines Paranoia Is Reasonable When You're Lied To & Controlled

WAYWARD PINES
If You’re Lied To & Controlled
Paranoia Is Reasonable

July 5, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

No one in Wayward Pines has any independence at all. And, ironically, it happens to be Independence Day. Yet, what do you do with that? Be paranoid? Maybe. Because when you’re being controlled, it makes sense to be paranoid. Especially in Wayward Pines, where you live in a world made up of lies, secrets, and …

Read moreWAYWARD PINES
If You’re Lied To & Controlled
Paranoia Is Reasonable

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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