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Characters On The Couch

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

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reality check

Francine Christophe's Chocolate This is How A Baby Lives

FRANCINE CHRISTOPHE’S CHOCOLATE
The Way A Baby Lives

October 4, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Listen. It is 1941 in Bergen-Belson concentration camp, a non-extermination camp where many prisoners died nonetheless of starvation. Francine Christophe is 8 years old, bearing a large Star of David (Juif) on her chest, imprisoned there with her mother, the barracks head. A strong and reassuring mother, keeping chocolate for the moment her daughter needed it …

Read moreFRANCINE CHRISTOPHE’S CHOCOLATE
The Way A Baby Lives
Busyness Are you blocking something out?

BUSYNESS
Are You Blocking Something Out?

September 26, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Stuart Whatley of the Huffington Post headlines his 9/25/15 article called The Myth Of Busyness in this way: “We in the West aren’t as freed up as we should be, but we also aren’t as busy as we’re constantly told.”  I found it interesting to read his detailed article on realities and fantasies about our …

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Are You Blocking Something Out?
Jon Hamm Wins Emmy Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten

EMMY’S 2015
Jon Hamm Wins!
Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten

September 22, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

I’ve been rooting for Jon Hamm. As a Mad Men enthusiast and psychoanalyst, I’ve written a number of pieces on the effects of Don Draper’s early trauma. Not only that, I’ve long admired the way Hamm brings Don’s very real struggles to life. Little did I know that his own early history, in some critical …

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Jon Hamm Wins!
Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten
Jake Gyllenhaal Demolition and Grieving

JAKE GYLLENHAAL
DEMOLITION
Ways Not to Grieve

September 11, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

I just watched the trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s upcoming 2016 film, Demolition, about the aftermath of his character, Davis’s, sudden loss of his wife, Julia. Loss can take many forms. As the trailer shows, Davis unravels. He can’t pull himself together. His father-in-law tries to encourage him to rebuild his life. To do so, he …

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DEMOLITION
Ways Not to Grieve
Mark Webber's Secret Movie Shhh...It's About His Mother

MARK WEBBER’S SECRET MOVIE
Shhhh … It’s About His Mother

September 6, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

A good mother can make a bad situation better. I just read Valentina Valentini’s piece in Indie Wire, Mark Webber Wants Your Money But He Can’t Tell You Why, about actor/director Mark Webber’s Kick Starter Campaign. He’s raising money for a movie he’s making about his mother. It’s a secret, but he did give his …

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Shhhh … It’s About His Mother
An Emmy for Jon Hamm? Yes! For Playing A Traumatized Man

EMMY FOR JON HAMM?
Yes! For Portraying
A Traumatized Man

August 14, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Jon Hamm deserves an Emmy for Don Draper. I agree with Variety’s Debra Birnbaum about that. But, I find it unfortunate that voters would only now consider awarding him that Emmy. As Birnbaum wrote, Jon Hamm likely hasn’t won in the past since “Don Draper … was a cheating husband, a neglectful father, an unapologetic …

Read moreEMMY FOR JON HAMM?
Yes! For Portraying
A Traumatized Man
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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.”

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