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Characters On The Couch

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

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film review

TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
How Do You Not Be Stopped From Speaking Out?

April 14, 2021 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The horror of Bobby Seale’s gagging by Judge Julius Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s timely film, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an image of what Black Lives Matter is fighting against. It’s an image of how being silenced provokes rage. The history and trial speak for themselves. But, as a psychoanalyst, I can talk …

Read moreTRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
How Do You Not Be Stopped From Speaking Out?
Brooklyn How Love Heals Homesickness & A Difficult Mother

BROOKLYN
How Love Heals Homesickness
& A Difficult Mother

January 3, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Has it really been 4 years since John Crowley and Nick Hornby’s film, Brooklyn, hit the big screen? And, why is it still a movie that speaks to us and that we keep going back to? Is it because it’s the versatile and talented Saorise Ronan’s first major film? Or because we all know, somewhere …

Read moreBROOKLYN
How Love Heals Homesickness
& A Difficult Mother
The Wife Why Some Women Sell Their Souls Loving A Narcisist

THE WIFE
Why Do Some Women
Sell Their Souls Loving A Narcissist?

August 26, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

*Spoiler Alert: Don’t Read Until You’ve Seen This Film* The Wife slowly and disturbingly reveals many things about Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) and her marriage to 1992 Nobel Prize Winner, Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce). She’s lived a lie, loving a narcissist. Allowed it. She’s become merely “the wife.” But, when Joe asks her, as she …

Read moreTHE WIFE
Why Do Some Women
Sell Their Souls Loving A Narcissist?
Weiner: What's wrong with Anthony Wiener A Psychoanalyst's Answer

WEINER
What’s Wrong With Anthony Weiner?
A Psychoanalyst’s Answer

July 4, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The big question in Josh Kreigman and Elyse Steinberg’s documentary Weiner is: “What’s wrong with Anthony Weiner?” Why would a political official destroy his reputation and his career? Why would he humiliate his wife? Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC’s Last Word posed this million-dollar question to Weiner on national TV: “What is wrong with you…I mean …

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What’s Wrong With Anthony Weiner?
A Psychoanalyst’s Answer
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 …

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A Dance Of Insecurities
Obstacles to Making Love Work
Losing Ground When a call to Mama is unanswered

LOSING GROUND
When A Call For ‘Mama’
Is Unanswered

May 4, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

What is lurking below the surface of a highly intellectualized philosophy professor’s emotional control? We find out in Losing Ground, filmed in 1982 but recently released by Milestone Films, noteworthy for being the first feature-length film produced and directed by a Black American woman. Kathleen Collins, who died an early death of cancer in 1988, …

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When A Call For ‘Mama’
Is Unanswered
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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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