The Bear: Trauma, Personality, and Attachment with Dr. Eric Bender and Dr. David Puder

Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast

David J Puder

Science, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Dr. David Puder is joined by psychiatrist Dr. Eric Bender to explore the psychological depth of the Emmy Award-winning show, The Bear (FX). Through a psychodynamic lens, they examine Carmy’s character—his trauma, complex PTSD, obsessive-compulsive personality traits, and avoidant attachment style. They also break down the borderline dynamics in his family, especially his mother’s primitive defenses, identity diffusion, and projective identification.

The discussion covers dissociation, personality styles, sibling roles, and emotional neglect, drawing connections to clinical work and real-life therapy. This episode gives both clinicians and fans of the show a nuanced understanding of how early attachment, trauma, and family dynamics shape adult behavior.

Whether you're a therapist, student, or simply a fan of the show, you'll gain insight into how The Bear reflects complex inner worlds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, welcome back to the podcast. I am joined today with Eric Bender. He is a repeat guest.
0:18.6	He was previously on the shrink-deck store and then inside out he does a lot of YouTube breakdown videos
0:28.4	of different movie themes. He's done some work with Facebook on their most recent Batman VR
0:38.4	video game and he's a psychiatrist in San Francisco. He is trained in Child Out of Lesson
0:44.8	Psychiatry,
0:45.6	forensic psychiatry.
0:47.2	Welcome back to the podcast.
0:48.5	Thanks, David.
0:49.3	It's great to be here again.
0:50.2	And a lot of what you do is psychotherapy in your practice.
0:53.8	Yes, I was psychotherapy-based.
0:55.2	Psychodynamic is really the method I use,
0:58.5	but adding in elements of CBT and psychoanalytic things
1:02.4	and just trying to do it helps my patients.
1:05.6	Awesome.
1:06.5	And today we are going to be talking about the bear,
1:09.2	yes, which is a TV series.
1:13.0	And tell me, how do you want to begin?
1:16.1	Sure, I think it's probably for your audience
1:17.9	give a summary and can you say
1:19.0	anybody's not familiar with the show.
1:20.3	It's a show on FX tells the story of Carmine Bersado,
	...

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