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Characters On The Couch

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

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The Martian Trauma of Abandonment Self-Sufficiency or Human Connection?

THE MARTIAN
Trauma Of Abandonment
Self-Sufficiency Or Connection?

February 27, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Director Ridley Scott’s film, The Martian, tells the story of NASA astronaut Mark Watney’s (Matt Damon) accidental abandonment on the barren planet of Mars. Early childhood abandonment also creates a desolate emotional landscape. People can’t be trusted. Hope is fractured. On Mars, Mark has two things to turn to 1. distasteful music of Commander Lewis’ …

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Trauma Of Abandonment
Self-Sufficiency Or Connection?
Bridge of Spies A Standing Man How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear

BRIDGE OF SPIES
A Standing Man
How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear

February 26, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Steven Spielberg’s powerful film, Bridge of Spies, asks some compelling psychological questions. Could there be two more different men than a Brooklyn lawyer in 1957 at the height of the Cold War and an alleged Russian spy – or are they different at all? And, if they aren’t, what is it exactly that forms an unexpected …

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A Standing Man
How Integrity Triumphs Over Fear
MAD MAX FURY ROAD Depression & Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind

MAD MAX FURY ROAD
Depression &
Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind

February 25, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Opportunists in the mind take over in states of emotional deprivation. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) in Director George Miller’s western style post apocalyptic film, Mad Max:Fury Road, is a good example. As a psychoanalyst who treats severe depressive states, I found this film a fascinating allegorical tale of the conditions under which mental tyrants take over, …

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Depression &
Tyrants That Take Over Your Mind
Steve Jobs What Happens To A Baby When No One Says Hello

STEVE JOBS
What Happens To A Baby
When No One Says Hello?

February 23, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Steve Jobs is a brilliantly conceived and emotionally revealing film by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle. According to both, this film is a human story, not a biopic. I agree. As we get to know Jobs through the filmmakers’ eyes and Michael Fassbender’s performance, we learn the heartbreaking roots of Steve Jobs’ controlling …

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What Happens To A Baby
When No One Says Hello?
ROOM How Does Therapy Find Words For Wordless Trauma?

ROOM
How Does Therapy Find Words
For Wordless Trauma?

February 18, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Emma Donoghue’s film, ROOM, takes us directly into the emotional experience of trauma. As the film opens, we hear a little boy’s voice introducing us to a girl named Ma. Kidnapped, stolen from her life, and kept in ROOM for seven years, Ma lives in a world as incomprehensible as Alice’s …

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How Does Therapy Find Words
For Wordless Trauma?
The Big Short Danger of Living in Bubbles & Fooling Ourselves

THE BIG SHORT
Danger Of Living In Bubbles
& Fooling Ourselves

February 10, 2016 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

The Big Short, directed by Adam McKay, starring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, and Brad Pitt, tells more than the story of the U.S. housing bubble from 2001 to 2005. More than the story of risky advantages taken by mortgage companies, hedge funds, and investment bankers to profit from it. I’m a psychoanalyst, not an …

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Danger Of Living In Bubbles
& Fooling Ourselves
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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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