Screen Psyche - screenpsyche.com

Realistic oil painting of a female astronaut drifting in space, reaching toward Earth with a worried expression, symbolising the fear of returning to Earth in Gravity

From Drifting to Grounded: The Fear of Returning to Earth

Explore how Gravity visualizes trauma. This analysis unpacks Ryan Stone’s journey from drifting to grounded, revealing her fear of returning to a life of grief.

Screen Psyche December 26, 2025

Classic oil painting of Dolores Umbridge calmly watching Harry Potter write lines with a blood quill, illustrating just world belief and victim blaming

Psychological Concepts via Characters

Just World Belief Examples: How Victim‑Blaming Powers Story Conflict

Discover how the Just World Belief powers on-screen victim-blaming. We analyze how writers use this psychological bias to create conflict and villains in film &

Screen Psyche December 22, 2025

TV Character Analysis

Beth Dutton Rage and Loyalty: A Trauma-Informed Psychological Character Study

Unpack the psychology of Beth Dutton rage. This trauma-informed character study explains how her fierce loyalty & explosive anger are survival skills born from

Screen Psyche December 18, 2025

Oil painting of a pensive young man in a suit sitting indoors while a small group talks outside the window, symbolising the romantic projection and loneliness in 500 Days of Summer

Film Character Analysis

Tom Hansen in (500) Days of Summer: Mistaking Projection for Proof of Love

SPOILER WARNING: This article discusses key plot points and the ending of (500) Days of Summer. If you haven't seen the film and want to avoid spoilers, stop here. So, is…

Screen Psyche December 16, 2025

A man sits alone at a birthday party, staring blankly at a cake while others laugh behind him, symbolizing anhedonia and emotional numbness in fictional characters.

Psychological Concepts via Characters

Anhedonia in Film: Film Characters Who Can’t Feel Pleasure

Fictional characters who can’t feel pleasure often embody anhedonia: a reduced ability to experience joy, interest, or reward from things that should feel good. On screen, this can look like…

Screen Psyche December 14, 2025

Classic oil painting of Wendy Byrde gripping Marty Byrde’s face in a tense close conversation, symbolising power and manipulation in Ozark

TV Character Analysis

Ozark Wendy Byrde power and manipulation — The Cost of Control

Few TV characters map a transformation from 'supportive spouse' to pragmatic political operator as convincingly — and disturbingly — as Wendy Byrde. In Ozark, Wendy's rise is not just a…

Screen Psyche December 12, 2025

A sorrowful woman resembling Sophie from Sophie’s Choice, inspired by Meryl Streep, sits in anguish as fragmented memories of loss and coercion surround her, symbolizing trauma and moral injury.

Film Character Analysis

Sophie’s Choice Memory and Trauma – A Compassionate Analysis

The Sophie’s Choice meaning around memory and trauma lies in how the film uses Sophie’s fragmented recollections, unbearable guilt, and self‑destructive relationships to show trauma as a lifelong struggle with…

Screen Psyche December 10, 2025

Warm, bright oil painting of exhausted fictional helpers—an archer, a teenage hero in a hoodie, a caped figure, a weary doctor, and a guardian-like angel—gathered around a slumped young man, symbolizing compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress.

Psychological Concepts via Characters

Compassion Fatigue on Screen: When Fictional Helpers Burn Out

Trigger & Spoiler Warning: This analysis discusses emotional exhaustion, secondary traumatic stress, and self-harm risk. It contains spoilers for The Hunger Games, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy,…

Screen Psyche December 8, 2025

Oil painting portrait of Steve Harrington from Stranger Things, capturing his reinvention from swaggering teen to soft-power caretaker; teal jacket, ’80s hair, protective gaze off-frame.

TV Character Analysis

Steve Harrington reinvention and growth: From Antagonist to Soft-Power Caretaker

There are few TV transformations as quietly satisfying as Steve Harrington's. Once the archetypal high-school antagonist — hair, swagger, brittle bravado — Steve becomes one of Stranger Things' most beloved…

Screen Psyche December 6, 2025

Film Character Analysis

T.E. Lawrence: Narcissism, the Fragmented Self, and the Making of a Myth

'A man of many names, several costumes, and one legend — what does T.E. Lawrence idealism and identity tell us about heroism, trauma, and cinematic mythmaking? This concise, viewer-focused analysis…

Screen Psyche December 4, 2025