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Book: Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind your Favorite Horror Movies
Year: 2023
Author: Brian A. Sharpless
Review:
This is a first for me in getting the opportunity to read a book as an advance copy. Monsters on the Couch is an interesting read by Brian A. Sharpless. Bianca from Independent Publishers Group asked if I would be interested in reading and doing a review. Before I got into watching movies like I do now, I was an avid reader. It is something that I get away from as my life gets busy, but always come back to.
That is enough about my background, let me get into what Sharpless does here. This has the subheading of ‘The Real Psychological Disorders Behind your Favorite Horror Movies’. Seeing that in the press release caught my interest even more. Brian is a trained psychologist. This gives interesting insight into the different topics that are explored. Not only that though, but he also has others who helped him with doing research and even references different studies as well as journals. Being that there is informational backing to what is said adds more weight for someone like me who loves to do research.
Brian delves into movie monsters from early horror cinema to modern day creatures and even behaviors that are horrific. Ahead of reading this, I did know what the basis of the werewolf concept is from and that there have been documented cases of vampirism. Not in the Dracula or Blade sense, but that a psychological disorder makes certain individuals feel like they need the blood of others to survive. Something closer to Transfiguration. What works here is that different disorders are introduced that could explain why someone thinks they’re a werewolf, vampire or zombie. It gives specific cases, if one could be found, give details as to why this patient thought this way and ways that people like this could be helped. The depth of the information provided was interesting and gives me a different perspective toward films with these monsters in them.
There are other disorders explored as well. Brian gives us the background information that it seems like Wes Craven used for A Nightmare on Elm Street. The book also explores syndromes like misidentification along with movies that use this idea. It also explores sleep paralysis, cannibalism, necrophilia and others as well.
Let me then close this out with the writing. What I like is that it feels like a conversation with Brian. He uses scientific ways of explaining things but breaks it down in a way where people who aren’t trained can understand. There is humor that is interjected. Not in a way though where it would be disrespectful. If anything, Brian pokes fun at himself. I’m not sure if these elements are removed or not. I hope they don’t. These helped make this a fast read with such heavy subject matter here. The ideas and concepts that are introduced add an element that I can take away and give me a different way of looking at my favorite films.
I’d highly recommend to people that analysis movies or what a different perspective on the monsters and villains we see on the screen, give this a read. I’m seeing that this is available for sale on October 3rd, 2023. This is worth your time for sure. The last thing I’ll say is that this feels like a documentary I’d watch, just in book form. For that, I’ll give it the highest rating I do for those for the time and care put into this.
My Rating: 8 out of 10