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Characters On The Couch

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

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characters on the couch

Groundhog Day How To Get Out of A Very Bad Negative Rut

GROUNDHOG DAY @ 27 YEARS: 1993-2020
What Does It Take To Get Out
Of A Very Bad Negative Rut?

September 17, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Do you feel like poor Phil Connors (Bill Murray) – stuck repeating the same day over and over again? COVID-19 quarantine can do that. It’s been 27 years since Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day hit the theaters for the first time. But 6 months probably feels long enough. If you’ve been ruminating about your love life …

Read moreGROUNDHOG DAY @ 27 YEARS: 1993-2020
What Does It Take To Get Out
Of A Very Bad Negative Rut?
Vice: Tyrants, Bullies, & Childhood Trauma

VICE
Tyrants & Bullies
What Do These 2 Have To Do With Childhood Trauma?

February 11, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

What makes someone greedy; heartless; manipulative; and corrupt? So hungry for power that anything goes; even law; morality; & a daughter? Adam McCay’s Vice doesn’t answer questions of what or why. Vice tells the story of who and how. Yet, let’s for a moment think about Dick and Lynne Cheney as two parts of one …

Read moreVICE
Tyrants & Bullies
What Do These 2 Have To Do With Childhood Trauma?
Leave No Trace What Happens When Trust Is Shattered

LEAVE NO TRACE
What Happens When Trust
Is Shattered?

October 21, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace is a story about trauma and distrust. That might not be the most obvious thing in this compelling film about a Vietnam Vet and his 13-year-old daughter who live in hiding in a park forest outside Portland, Oregon. But for me, as a psychoanalyst, it is the film’s heart. Will …

Read moreLEAVE NO TRACE
What Happens When Trust
Is Shattered?
Operation Finale How One Man's Trauma Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

OPERATION FINALE
One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

September 27, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Peter Zvi Malkin’s Holocaust trauma worked in his favor to capture Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s Chief Executioner; Head of the SS Office of Jewish Affairs, and the Architect of the Final Solution. At least that’s the Hollywood version of the story. It makes sense as PTSD goes. And, although Chris Weitz’s Operation Finale invented the dialogue …

Read moreOPERATION FINALE
One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann
Cabaret How Quickly Freedom Disappears

CABARET
How Quickly Freedom Disappears

September 13, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

It’s frightening how quickly freedom disappears. We have to watch out for those complicated forces, in the outside world and living inside us, that want to deceive us if we aren’t aware. Cabaret is a powerful and disturbing illustration, plus a startling reminder, of the various ways these dangers lurk. Over Labor Day weekend, I …

Read moreCABARET
How Quickly Freedom Disappears
Crazy Rich Asians How to Be The Winner Over A Boyfriend's Mother's Envy?

CRAZY RICH ASIANS
How To Be The Winner
Over A Boyfriend’s Mother’s Envy

September 3, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Jon Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians is about crazy wealth. But it’s really about so much more. It’s about the clashes between old money and new; privilege and disadvantage; American-born Asians and those calling Asia home; between following passion and giving into duty. Mostly it’s about a boyfriend’s mother’s envy. And, at the film’s center, we …

Read moreCRAZY RICH ASIANS
How To Be The Winner
Over A Boyfriend’s Mother’s Envy
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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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