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Characters On The Couch

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

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suicide

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Where Trauma Driven Obsession
Takes You & It’s Not Healing

May 8, 2021 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Cassie lost her very best friend (and only true soulmate) to suicide. Why? A violent and repeated rape seriously traumatized Nina and she couldn’t go on. And, no one listened. No one saw the rape as rape and no one blamed the rapist. It makes sense, doesn’t it, that Cassie can now think of nothing …

Read morePROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Where Trauma Driven Obsession
Takes You & It’s Not Healing
A Star Is Born Infant Trauma Can Ruin A Life

A STAR IS BORN
Repeating Notes of  Infant Trauma
Can Ruin A Life If Not Heard

February 18, 2019 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Hanging himself wasn’t Jackson Maine’s fault. Nor was his drinking. Yes, his brother Bobby said to the heartbroken, Ally: “It was Jack; not you; not me; Jack and no one else.” But, that’s because he didn’t understand. And, really, Jackson had the right idea: “A song is only an octave. Twelve notes and it repeats. …

Read moreA STAR IS BORN
Repeating Notes of  Infant Trauma
Can Ruin A Life If Not Heard
three identical strangers, effects of separation trauma

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
The Signs of Separation Trauma?
This Film Tells Us A Lot

July 26, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Tim Wardle’s documentary, Three Identical Strangers, is a timely and disturbing account of the trauma of early separation. As a psychoanalyst who specializes in separation trauma, I left the theater shaken and troubled. Children aren’t for using. They aren’t for self-serving studies, proving points, or punishing parents (yes, Trump and your cronies, that’s you.) The …

Read moreTHREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
The Signs of Separation Trauma?
This Film Tells Us A Lot
Leo Hurwitz In Search of Hart Crane His Suicide & His Childhood

LEO HURWITZ
IN SEARCH OF HART CRANE 1966
Reflections On His Suicide
& His Childhood

January 8, 2018 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Leo Hurwitz’s penetrating and poetic script and his camera (with the assistance of fellow cameraman Manfred Kirchheimer) (Watch Film), follow John Unterecker, Hart Crane’s biographer (the 800-page “Voyager: A Life Of Hart Crane”), through Unterecker’s researches into Hart Crane’s life. In Search of Hart Crane is composed primarily of fascinating interviews with friends of Hart …

Read moreLEO HURWITZ
IN SEARCH OF HART CRANE 1966
Reflections On His Suicide
& His Childhood
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 …

Read moreROOM
How Does Therapy Find Words
For Wordless Trauma?
Graham Moor's Acceptance Speech Why Harsh Critics?

GRAHAM MOORE’S MOVING ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Why Harsh Critics?

February 28, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

I am one of those who applauded Graham Moore for his moving and courageous acceptance speech when he won his Imitation Game Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. So, as a psychologist, when I read the critiques, I had to stop and think: Why? Why pick on things like – he isn’t gay? He used the word …

Read moreGRAHAM MOORE’S MOVING ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Why Harsh Critics?
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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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