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Characters On The Couch

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

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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 …

Read moreBUSYNESS
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 …

Read moreEMMY’S 2015
Jon Hamm Wins!
Early Losses Not To Be Forgotten
Jessie Rosen & Therapy Shame Don't Let These 3 Reasons Stop You From Getting Help

‘THERAPY SHAME’
Don’t Let These 3 Reasons
Stop You From Getting Help

September 19, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

It’s hard to admit you need help. Everyone knows that therapy is out there, but as soon as you consider it, a voice in your head tells you all the shameful reasons NOT to go. Don’t let that voice stop you. Therapy Shame is real. But, listen to what Jessie Rosen says instead.  She’s been …

Read more‘THERAPY SHAME’
Don’t Let These 3 Reasons
Stop You From Getting Help
Mistress America Going Backwards To Go Forwards That's Psychoanalysis

MISTRESS AMERICA
Going Backward To Go Forward
That’s Psychoanalysis

September 17, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s kooky and touching new film, Mistress America, gives us Brooke Cardenas (Greta Gerwig), a 30-year-old autodidact, full of life and ideas, but stuck. She can’t get her life off the ground. Brooke needs help, but help makes her feel small: “There’s nothing I don’t know about myself. That’s why I can’t …

Read moreMISTRESS AMERICA
Going Backward To Go Forward
That’s Psychoanalysis
99 Homes What Makes Someone Become Who He Hates?

99 HOMES
What Makes Someone Become
Who He Hates?

September 7, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Alert: Possible Spoilers How can someone do exactly to other people what’s been done to him? That’s the big psychological question in Ramin Bahrani’s new film, 99 Homes. How can Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) become the right-hand man to the very real estate developer (Michael Shannon) who callously uses the housing market collapse to repossess and …

Read more99 HOMES
What Makes Someone Become
Who He Hates?
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 …

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