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Characters On The Couch

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

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sandra e. cohen, phd

SELMA How Does A Wife Overcome 4 Essential Qualities

SELMA
How Does A Wife Overcome?
4 Essential Qualities

February 20, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Many of us are talking about the timeliness of Selma in light of the tragic events in Ferguson, New York, and Ohio. The gripping message it has for all of us is to effectively garner our anger and fight injustice. Yet, director Ava DuVernay also has a passion for telling women’s stories. And, of course, …

Read moreSELMA
How Does A Wife Overcome?
4 Essential Qualities
Finding Vivian Maier Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found

February 19, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The burning question in John Maloof’s poignant and heartbreaking documentary, Finding Vivian Maier is this: did she want to be found? As a psychoanalyst with years of experience working with similarly troubled and traumatized patients, I’d have to say yes and no. There were two sides to Vivian Maier; some saw one, some saw another; some …

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Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found
American Sniper Why Does A Soldier Go Back For More & More

AMERICAN SNIPER
What Makes A Soldier
Go Back For More … And More

February 17, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper tells the story of parental directives that live on long past childhood just as much it tells the horrors of war and its psychological costs. Chris Kyle can’t be a sheep and he certainly can’t be a wolf preying on the innocent. His dad would kill him for that. But, “finishing” …

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What Makes A Soldier
Go Back For More … And More
Whiplash Why Cruelty Is Not The Winner

WHIPLASH
Why Cruelty is Not The Winner

February 15, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

“I don’t want the Raisinettes, I just eat around them” … that’s what Andrew Neiman, in Whiplash, does with the hurts in his life. That’s what he tries to do with jazz teacher Terrance Fletcher’s demeaning and crude sadism in this psychologically riveting film. Fletcher’s cruelty has its hook and he finds it in Andrew’s …

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Why Cruelty is Not The Winner
Birdman Voices in His Head Truth or Dare Friend or Foe

BIRDMAN
The Voice In His Head
Truth Or Dare, Friend Or Foe?

February 13, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

What do we talk about when we talk about someone losing his grip on reality? When it comes to that question, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s brilliant film, Birdman, is meaty stuff for a psychoanalyst like me. Riggan Thompson, former action hero, has-been, failed husband and father, is struggling to change his life – against a Voice …

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The Voice In His Head
Truth Or Dare, Friend Or Foe?
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
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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.”

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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