• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail

Characters On The Couch

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

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Sandra E. Cohen, PhD
  • Entertainment Consulting
  • Psychology & Story
  • Leo Hurwitz’s Documentaries
  • Contact

early trauma

Parasite Hunger and Humiliation Gone Wild

PARASITE
Hunger & Humiliation Gone Wild

January 23, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Hunger can lead to desperate acts. And, it does –  in Bong Joon-Ho’s startling new film, Parasite. Plus, we find. if you’re hungry and helpless (emotionally, that is), you can even become a parasite. The kind of hunger we witness in many of Parasite’s characters leads to various forms of exploitation – of the class …

Read morePARASITE
Hunger & Humiliation Gone Wild
Steve Jobs What Happens To A Baby When No One Says Hello

STEVE JOBS
What Happens To A Baby
When No One Says Hello?

February 23, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Steve Jobs is a brilliantly conceived and emotionally revealing film by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle. According to both, this film is a human story, not a biopic. I agree. As we get to know Jobs through the filmmakers’ eyes and Michael Fassbender’s performance, we learn the heartbreaking roots of Steve Jobs’ controlling …

Read moreSTEVE JOBS
What Happens To A Baby
When No One Says Hello?
Jon Hamm Wins Emmy Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten

EMMY’S 2015
Jon Hamm Wins!
Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten

September 22, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

I’ve been rooting for Jon Hamm. As a Mad Men enthusiast and psychoanalyst, I’ve written a number of pieces on the effects of Don Draper’s early trauma. Not only that, I’ve long admired the way Hamm brings Don’s very real struggles to life. Little did I know that his own early history, in some critical …

Read moreEMMY’S 2015
Jon Hamm Wins!
Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten
Mad Men Season 7 Episode 8 Don Draper's Dream The Mother He Lost

MAD MEN Season 7 Episode 8
Don Draper’s Dream &
The Mother He Lost

April 7, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 8, Severance, shows us just how much Don Draper needs therapy. Psychoanalysis would be even better, with his traumatic history, one he’s unconsciously living out. Don’s needed therapy for a long time. But, now, with Meagan gone, this loss repeats earlier losses. And, with Don finally opening up about the …

Read moreMAD MEN Season 7 Episode 8
Don Draper’s Dream &
The Mother He Lost

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.”

Recent Posts

The Power of the Dog Why Phil Burbank’s Cruelty is About What He Hates in Himself
SOUND OF METAL How Silence Stops A Man From Running
The Father Dementia and The Fight To Hold Onto Who He Was

Copyright © 2023 · Sandra E. Cohen, Ph.D. · All Rights Reserved