Characters On The Couch

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

hate

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
A Narcissistic Mother Takes Over
& Destroys A Child’s Soul

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A narcissistic mother uses her children. She controls them, starves them of love. In John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate (1962), that’s Eleanor Shaw Iselin, Mother of lead character Raymond Shaw. Raymond is deeply convinced: “I’m not lovable.” No wonder he has enough hate to be brainwashed to kill. “Yes, Mother,” “Yes, Ma’am, and “Yes, Sir” govern …

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A Narcissistic Mother Takes Over
& Destroys A Child’s Soul

THE HATE U GIVE
Hate Yourself For Keeping Quiet?
Don’t Be Afraid Of Speaking Out

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The world is filled with too much hate. This piece is in honor of Black Lives Matter. Dedicated to those who’ve spent their lives, like Starr Carter in The Hate U Give, having to hide, needing to code-switch to play it safe (as discussed on NPR’s Code Switch). George Tillman, Jr’s compellingly forceful film offers …

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Hate Yourself For Keeping Quiet?
Don’t Be Afraid Of Speaking Out

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
(Ingmar Bergman, 1961)
Can A Cold, Stony-Faced Father
Drive A Girl Insane?

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Can a cold narcissistic father drive a girl insane? The short answer is yes. Wilfred Bion defined psychosis as hatred of reality. And, what is there to love about the reality of a self-obsessed father who cares more about his own desires than his children? Facing that is horror. We see it in Through A …

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(Ingmar Bergman, 1961)
Can A Cold, Stony-Faced Father
Drive A Girl Insane?

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
That “I Got You” Kind Of Love
The Best Remedy For Hate, Helplessness & Despair

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The River’s family’s “I Got You” kind of love is If Beale Street Could Talk’s most potent reminder of exactly what transcends hate, helplessness, and despair. We see it when Tish’s dad holds her: “I got you, baby, I got you.” When Tish says to her newborn son: “I got you. I got you. I …

Read moreIF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
That “I Got You” Kind Of Love
The Best Remedy For Hate, Helplessness & Despair

OPERATION FINALE
One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

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Peter Zvi Malkin’s Holocaust trauma worked in his favor to capture Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s Chief Executioner; Head of the SS Office of Jewish Affairs, and the Architect of the Final Solution. At least that’s the Hollywood version of the story. It makes sense as PTSD goes. And, although Chris Weitz’s Operation Finale invented the dialogue …

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One Man’s Holocaust Trauma
Helped Capture Adolf Eichmann

BLACKkKLANSMAN
Standing Up To Hate & Self-Hate
1970 Is Now

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Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is a brilliant, terrifying, and timely treatise on hate. The film tells Ron Stallworth’s true early 1970’s story (played by John David Washington): a courageous, harrowing, but ultimately foiled effort to expose the KKK and its virulent racial hate. Fuel it’s fires and hate justifies violence. Then is now: 1970 is 2018. Hate …

Read moreBLACKkKLANSMAN
Standing Up To Hate & Self-Hate
1970 Is Now