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Characters On The Couch

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

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Joker Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking Leads To Hate in a Traumatized Boy

JOKER
Smile Though Your
Heart Is Breaking
& Hate In A Traumatized Boy

March 27, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Arthur Fleck is Joker. That’s the name of Todd Phillips’s 2019 film and Joaquin Phoenix’s well-deserved Best Actor Oscar-winning character. Arthur must be a Joker, a self-made stand-up comedian. He must laugh, though his heart is breaking. And, being a comedian is the best way to keep laughing. Isn’t that right …? No, he’s not …

Read moreJOKER
Smile Though Your
Heart Is Breaking
& Hate In A Traumatized Boy
The Irrational Man If I'd been a script Therapist for Abe Lucas

THE IRRATIONAL MAN
If I’d Been The Script Therapist
For Abe Lucas

July 26, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Woody Allen’s new film, The Irrational Man, gives us a troubled philosophy professor, Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix), in an existential crisis. Although Abe is an expert in Existentialism, he can’t live its system of belief. He’d have to find meaning in his life and live it to its fullest, in spite of its limits (or …

Read moreTHE IRRATIONAL MAN
If I’d Been The Script Therapist
For Abe Lucas
her-characters-on-the-couch

HER
Fantasy Relationship 3.0

August 1, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Spike Jonze is interested in loneliness. His new film, Her, is a semi-futuristic exploration of one lonely man’s struggle to learn what love is and what love is not. Here’s what we know about Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix). He has a broken heart. His marriage to Catherine has come to a devastatingly sad end. At BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, …

Read moreHER
Fantasy Relationship 3.0

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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