Trauma
(A version of this review can also be found on Psychology Today.) Sigmund Freud described denial as one of the ego’s defenses against intolerable psychological pain. His daughter, Anna Freud, expanded this idea, suggesting that denial can sometimes be a necessary and even adaptive part of healthy development rather than simply a pathological symptom. We…
What We Believe, What We Remember, What We Inherit Families, relationships, and communities shape us in ways both obvious and invisible. Jonathan Spector’s This Much I Know explores how our personal histories, inherited beliefs, and the stories we tell ourselves collide—sometimes painfully, sometimes with unexpected insight. In this beautifully acted play, competing truths coexist, challenging…
Imagine your older sister—tattooed, disheveled, possibly drunk, and definitely uninvited—showing up on your doorstep with emotional baggage and a grudge. Now imagine she’s a character on a glossy streaming series. Two of the buzziest shows this month—Sirens (Netflix) and The Better Sister (Amazon Prime Video)—lean into this exact setup. On the surface, they’re frothy and…
It’s not every day that a series dares to explore female sexuality with honesty—and even less often does it do so in tandem with the realities of terminal illness. Hulu’s Dying for Sex manages both, telling a bold yet intimate story that invites us to think differently about what it means to be alive. Based…
“Do any human beings every realize life while they live it?” I saw Thornton Wilder’s 1928 Pulitzer Prize winning play Our Town at some point during my childhood and remembered it vaguely. Mostly I remembered that the plot followed two young people in a small town falling in love and that the boy loved baseball.…
If only we therapists could concoct a reliable strategy to help our clients prevent affairs. If only we could convincingly illuminate the heartbreak and damage and devastation in advance to help motivate adults who find themselves deep in the throes of an intense crush to carve out a different path. The trouble typically is that…
Early adulthood is a rich psychological time when personalities develop more deeply, and individuals begin to cultivate what systems therapists describe as a more grounded sense of self. Early adulthood marks a wonderful but often fraught stage of life full of pondering, pain and possibility. Illinoise, a stunning musical directed and choreographed by Justin Peck,…
A few months ago, my college age daughter, (an English major) suggested that I read Dear Edward. Then, while we were traveling together for spring break, she noticed me reading the book as recommended and expressed surprised concern that I would pick a book about a plane crash while navigating various legs of air travel.…
Kimberly Akimbo, the most awarded musical of the 2023 Tony Awards, announced that it will hold its final Broadway performance on April 28th, 2024. If you have teenagers in your family or college students willing to hang with you over spring break, consider a family road trip to NYC to catch the show. Victoria Clark,…
If your young adult children are home for the holidays, consider bonding while viewing The Holdovers which is available to stream on multiple platforms. The attached New York Times review captures a lot of what makes the film heartwarming and worthwhile. As a therapist, what the review leaves out that will be relevant to viewers…