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Characters On The Couch

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

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helplessness

If Beale Street Could Talk - I Got You Kind Of Love

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

March 14, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

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
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?
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Where Does the Buck Stop?

THREE BILLBOARDS
OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
How Does The Buck Finally Stop?

December 7, 2017 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic and deeply painful Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri gives us a tough look at how anger and blame is one (ineffective) way of trying to handle very difficult feelings. We have Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a bereaved mom: hardened, blunt, feeling uncharacteristically helpless, and furious about it. The town’s much loved …

Read moreTHREE BILLBOARDS
OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
How Does The Buck Finally Stop?

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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