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Characters On The Couch

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

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LOVE IS STRANGE No. This is the Best Kind of Love

LOVE IS STRANGE
No. This Is The Best Of Love

January 5, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Ben (John Lithgow) and George’s (Alfred Molina) relationship, in Ira Sach’s virtuoso film, Love Is Strange, celebrates the best of love. Love can bring many things – happiness, joy and companionship, yes. But, also, conflict, mismatch, disappointment, hurt, and loss.  The specialness of Love Is Strange is how this film gives us an open window into just what adult …

Read moreLOVE IS STRANGE
No. This Is The Best Of Love
Boyhood Feeling Stuff is the Point of Life

BOYHOOD
Feeling Stuff is the Point of Life

January 5, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s beautiful new film, is so compellingly real it’s easy to forget we aren’t watching a 12-year documentary of an actual family. With deft cinematic strokes, Linklater melds one phase of this family’s life. And Mason’s (Ellar Coltrane) journey through adolescence from ages 6 – 18, moves seamlessly into the next. Yet, Linklater’s …

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Feeling Stuff is the Point of Life
Buyer and Cellar An Actor's Personal History Matters

BUYER AND CELLAR
An Actor’s Personal History Matters

September 8, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

If you haven’t seen Jonathan Tolins’ hit off-Broadway play Buyer and Cellar at the Mark Taper Forum in Downtown Los Angeles run don’t walk (or, should I say, Google the show? Get tickets as fast as you can before the comedy concludes its LA run on Sunday, August 17th. You absolutely don’t want to miss Michael Urie’s laugh-out-loud, …

Read moreBUYER AND CELLAR
An Actor’s Personal History Matters
robin-williams-Peggy-Sirota-Characters-on-the-Couch

ROBIN WILLIAMS’ SUICIDE
Depression is No Laughing Matter

September 8, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

AUGUST 11 — I was shocked and saddened to hear of Robin Williams’ untimely death and tragic suicide. Truly, depression is a terrible thing to live with. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones in this time of excruciating loss. And, also to the rest of us, who loved him in our own ways. Indeed, …

Read moreROBIN WILLIAMS’ SUICIDE
Depression is No Laughing Matter
Good Will Hunting Robin Williams Suicide Self-Hate Must Be Revealed

GOOD WILL HUNTING
Whys of Robin Williams’ Suicide?
Self-Hate Must Be Healed

September 8, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The heartbreak of Robin Williams’ suicide brings depression and suicide to the forefront of everyone’s mind, along with remembrances of his many film roles. Why did he do it? Ironically, Williams won his only Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for his emotional performance as Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting. Maguire, a …

Read moreGOOD WILL HUNTING
Whys of Robin Williams’ Suicide?
Self-Hate Must Be Healed
MAD MEN Season 7 Episode 7 Every Person Has A Story What's Jim Cutler's

MAD MEN Season 7 Episode 7
Behind Every Person is a Story
What’s Jim Cutler’s?

August 2, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin) is a mad man full of envy. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be so bent on getting rid of Don Draper. And, he wouldn’t be making unilateral decisions to be sure no one gets in his way. Contrary to what the soon-to-be-deceased Bert Cooper suggests, Cutler’s not a leader, a team player, or anything like that.  Ultimately, he wants …

Read moreMAD MEN Season 7 Episode 7
Behind Every Person is a Story
What’s Jim Cutler’s?
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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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