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Characters On The Couch

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

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GET OUT Trauma Never Again Getting Out

GET OUT
Trauma #Never Again
& “Getting Out”

November 2, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Jordan Peele’s brilliantly conceived film, Get Out, does its job of shattering the myth that we’re living in a post-racial America. My great uncle, Leo Hurwitz’s film, Strange Victory, did the same in 1948 after we won the war against Hitler but came home to racism here. It’s now 72 years later and there’s still …

Read moreGET OUT
Trauma #Never Again
& “Getting Out”
Black Panther What Heartlessness Has To do with An Abandoned Kid's Need for Power

BLACK PANTHER
What Heartlessness Has to Do With
An Abandoned Kid’s
Need For Power?

February 18, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Heartlessness, and what causes it, is the theme in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther; as far as I can see. More importantly, Black Panther shows us how heartlessness can “create a monster,” in an abandoned child now-man, with his slow-burning hate; vengeful rage; and need for power. And, certainly, we witness what heartlessness has to do …

Read moreBLACK PANTHER
What Heartlessness Has to Do With
An Abandoned Kid’s
Need For Power?
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?
The Shape of Water A Girl's Muteness A Creature's Aggression & Seemingly Magic Cures

THE SHAPE OF WATER
Seemingly Magic Cures

January 4, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Cruelty and misunderstanding can make you a monster or a mute. Guillermo del Toro’s compelling allegorical fable, The Shape of Water, shows us that quite well. We can say all the obvious things about this multi-layered film set in its backdrop of the Cold War and a high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. There’s loneliness …

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Seemingly Magic Cures
Neflix's Love A Dance of Insecurities Obstacles to Making Love Work

NETFLIX’S LOVE
A Dance Of Insecurities
Obstacles to Making Love Work

June 23, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Is it real? What does it take to make love work? Netflix’s Love by Judd Apatow, Paul Rust, and Leslie Arfin raises some important questions. What takes an attraction farther than a romantic fantasy? What allows two people who’ve been hurt in the past to get beyond the fear of being hurt again? Sometimes we don’t …

Read moreNETFLIX’S LOVE
A Dance Of Insecurities
Obstacles to Making Love Work
Bridge of Spies A Standing Man How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear

BRIDGE OF SPIES
A Standing Man
How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear

February 26, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Steven Spielberg’s powerful film, Bridge of Spies, asks some compelling psychological questions. Could there be two more different men than a Brooklyn lawyer in 1957 at the height of the Cold War and an alleged Russian spy – or are they different at all? And, if they aren’t, what is it exactly that forms an unexpected …

Read moreBRIDGE OF SPIES
A Standing Man
How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear
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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.”

Recent Posts

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