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Characters On The Couch

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

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depression

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?
Winter Light Ingmar Bergman 1963 A Man Who Cannot Need Cannot Love

WINTER LIGHT
Ingmar Bergman (1963)
A Man Who Need Cannot Love

June 6, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Reverend Tomas Ericsson is a man who cannot need. And, because he can’t, he struggles with both God and love. Tomas over and over coldly rejects his desperately loving former lover, Marta. Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light 1963, slowly reveals the source of his loss of faith. Tomas loved his dead wife: “When she died, so …

Read moreWINTER LIGHT
Ingmar Bergman (1963)
A Man Who Need Cannot Love
Janis Little Girl Blue Singing for her Feelings To Be Heard

JANIS LITTLE GIRL BLUE
Singing For Her Feelings
To Be Heard

May 31, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

“I sing because I can experience a lot of feelings…” Otherwise, Janis Joplin had no one to hear. The most chilling part of Amy Berg’s documentary, Janis: Little Girl Blue, is to witness the cold formality of Mother and Father Joplin. No one can miss Janis’s hunger for love. Less obvious are the roots of …

Read moreJANIS LITTLE GIRL BLUE
Singing For Her Feelings
To Be Heard
MAD MAX FURY ROAD Depression & Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind

MAD MAX FURY ROAD
Depression &
Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind

February 25, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Opportunists in the mind take over in states of emotional deprivation. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) in Director George Miller’s western style post apocalyptic film, Mad Max:Fury Road, is a good example. As a psychoanalyst who treats severe depressive states, I found this film a fascinating allegorical tale of the conditions under which mental tyrants take over, …

Read moreMAD MAX FURY ROAD
Depression &
Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind
The End of the Tour David Foster Wallace's Self Loathing Voice & Depression

THE END OF THE TOUR
A Self-Loathing Voice & Depression

August 10, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The End of the Tour shows that a self-loathing voice can’t be allowed to take center stage. It makes you believe other people are thinking terrible thoughts about you too. You keep your distance. It’s a lonely place to be. David Foster Wallace’s short story, The Depressed Person, shows he knew that struggle well. So …

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A Self-Loathing Voice & Depression
The End of The Tour

THE END OF THE TOUR
Jason Segel Gets Inside
Foster Wallace’s Quiet Torment

August 4, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Depression is outwardly a quiet torment. Inside it’s an almost constant implosion of self-deprecating self-doubt. That’s what we witness in director James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour – wrapped around David Foster Wallace like his famous bandana. Woven all-too-frequently into the substance of his conversation with David Lipsky: the ravages of a cruelly oppressive …

Read moreTHE END OF THE TOUR
Jason Segel Gets Inside
Foster Wallace’s Quiet Torment
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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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