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Characters On The Couch

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

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loneliness

STAND BY ME Friendship Matters In Grief, Loneliness & COVID-19

STAND BY ME
Friendship Matters
In Grief, Loneliness & COVID-19

July 30, 2020 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

We all need friends. Like Gordie and Chris in Rob Reiner‘s 1986 film classic Stand by Me. Especially now. When the new fears of COVID-19 layer on top of old traumas, worries, and sadness – and can make them prey upon you like the gang of teenage bullies in the film. Won’t leave you alone. …

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Friendship Matters
In Grief, Loneliness & COVID-19
The Silence (1963) Ingmar Bergman Why Silence Can Be Loud and Lonely

THE SILENCE
Ingmar Bergman (1963)
Why Silence Can Be Loud & Lonely

November 6, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Silence isn’t always golden. Not in Ingmar Bergman’s book. And, his various film treatises on silence speak to us loudly on many planes of emotional existence, and those planes are never smooth. Of course, silence can provide a necessary space for personal truths to appear. For imaginings to ripen and take hold. Or, a respite …

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Ingmar Bergman (1963)
Why Silence Can Be Loud & Lonely
Through The Glass Darkly Ingmar Bergman 1961 Can A Cold, Stony-Faced Father Drive A Girl Insane?

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

May 29, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

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?
Janis Little Girl Blue Singing for her Feelings To Be Heard

JANIS LITTLE GIRL BLUE
Singing For Her Feelings
To Be Heard

May 31, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

“I sing because I can experience a lot of feelings…” Otherwise, Janis Joplin had no one to hear. The most chilling part of Amy Berg’s documentary, Janis: Little Girl Blue, is to witness the cold formality of Mother and Father Joplin. No one can miss Janis’s hunger for love. Less obvious are the roots of …

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Singing For Her Feelings
To Be Heard
Shonda Rhimes How to Come Out The Other Side of Loneliness

SHONDA RHIMES
Coming Out The Other Side
Of Loneliness

March 17, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

In her Human Rights Campaign award speech on 3/14/15, Shonda Rhimes said that writing as a child saved her. I’m sure it did. Yet, I think her ability to create a world of people who served as placeholders until she could find her “people in the real world” is the most important thing. Shonda was …

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Coming Out The Other Side
Of Loneliness
The Grand Budapest Hotel What Fake Persona's Cover Up

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
What Fake Personas Cover-Up

February 11, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Why does someone create an illusion of who they are? Wes Anderson, a master of psychological ironies, tells us quite a lot about that subject in The Grand Budapest Hotel. At the center of the film is M. Gustave trying to live as someone he is not. All around him are juxtapositions of barbarism with …

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What Fake Personas Cover-Up

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

The Power of the Dog Why Phil Burbank’s Cruelty is About What He Hates in Himself
SOUND OF METAL How Silence Stops A Man From Running
The Father Dementia and The Fight To Hold Onto Who He Was

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