Posts Tagged ‘trauma’
THE IRRATIONAL MAN
If I’d Been The Script Therapist
For Abe Lucas
Woody Allen’s new film, The Irrational Man, gives us a troubled philosophy professor, Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix), in an existential crisis. Although Abe is an expert in Existentialism, he can’t live its system of belief. He’d have to find meaning in his life and live it to its fullest, in spite of its limits (or…
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MAD MEN & Don Draper
Don’s Stories
Creating Greener Pastures?
Mad Men Season 7 Episode 12 gives us more to chew on about Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) greatest talent: creating stories that sell. Sometimes his imagination carries him away, for better or worse. Where did this talent come from? No doubt, Don’s imagination saved him from an abusive and damaging childhood. Imagining being somewhere else…
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UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT
5 Ways The Series Repeats
Kimmy’s Original Problems
SPOILER ALERT: You might not want to read this post until you’ve watched the entire series. It’s terribly difficult to write a comedy about something as traumatic as kidnapping, sexual exploitation, and brainwashing. Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock) tries to do just that. Does it work? Is there a…
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AMERICAN CRIME
How The 1st Episode Is Like The 1st Session of Therapy & How It’s Not
We’re left with more questions than answers at the end of the premiere of John Ridley’s American Crime. Of course – we’ve only just begun. Yet, we start to realize that each main character has complicated secrets that must be uncovered in order to make sense of what’s happened. For me, as not just a viewer…
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FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
Wanting & Not Wanting To Be Found
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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