Characters on the Couch: Exploring Psychology through Literature and Film

by Dean Allen Haycock

Providing intriguing insights for students, film buffs, and readers of various genres of fiction, this fascinating book delves into the psychology of 100 well-known fictional characters.

Our favorite fictional characters from books and movies often display an impressive and wide range of psychological attributes, both positive and negative. We admire their resilience, courage, humanity, or justice, and we are intrigued by other characters who show signs of personality disorders and mental illness―psychopathy, narcissism, antisocial personality, paranoia, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, among many other conditions. This book examines the psychological attributes and motivations of 100 fascinating characters that include examples of both accurate and misleading depictions of psychological traits and conditions, enabling readers to distinguish realistic from inaccurate depictions of human behavior.

An introductory section provides a background of the interplay between psychology and fiction and is followed by psychological profiles of 100 fictional characters from classic and popular literature, film, and television. Each profile summarizes the plot, describes the character's dominant psychological traits or mental conditions, and analyzes the accuracy of such depictions. Additional material includes author profiles, a glossary of psychological and literary terms, a list of sources, and recommended readings.

368 pages, Hardcover

Published August 29, 2016

About the author

Dean Haycock is a science and medical writer living in New York.

He is the author of "Characters on the Couch, Exploring Psychology Through Literature and Film" (ABC-CLIO/Greewood, 2016); "Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil" (Pegasus Books), "The Everything Health Guide to Adult Bipolar Disorder," 2nd and 3rd Editions (Adams Media) and "The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia" (Adams Media). He also is the co-author of "Avoiding and Dealing with Complications of LASIK and Other Eye Surgeries" (with Ismail A. Shalaby, M.D., Ph.D.)

He earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Brown University and a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health to study at The Rockefeller University. The results of his research, conducted in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry, have been published in Brain Research, the Journal of Neurochemistry, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

The author’s other reporting and feature articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines including WebMD, Drug Discovery and Development, BioWorld Today, BioWorld International, The Lancet Neurology, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Current Biology and the Annals of Internal Medicine. In addition, he has contributed articles on a variety of topics to The Gale Encyclopedia of Science and The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health.

He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy.

Reviews

[Little Miss Swiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for all interested in psychology that are totally into movies. For me this was a perfect opportunity to learn about the different aspects in an easy way for a non professional as it is very detailed and clearly written.