PUBLICATIONS
Review
"This is a book about bravery, the bravery of the young people courageous enough to face histories of multiple trauma and the bravery of the author courageous enough to work with young people who have survived Middle East wars or the wars of inner-city New York. Etty Cohen gives those of us who work with adolescents renewed hope in the power of a psychoanalytically-oriented treatment approach. Adolescent therapists of all persuasions will find something new and exciting in her synthesis of relational and classical psychoanalytic writings on adolescence, and their own techniques will be enhanced by following Cohen's work through her detailed and moving case histories. Playing Hard at Life will be a major resource and support for all therapists brave enough to undertake the psychodynamic treatment of traumatized adolescents."
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- Jack Novick, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Michigan
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"Etty Cohen has written an invaluable guide to psychotherapeutic work in the trenches with traumatized adolescents. Drawing heavily on Ferenczi, her predecessor in taking on the most difficult clinical situations, Cohen weaves together theory and vivid, real-world clinical examples to create a work that is thoughtful and ultimately hopeful in the midst of overwhelming, unbearably painful human situations."
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- Neil Altman, Ph.D, Co-Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues
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​​"With moving detail and remarkable emotional honesty, this book depicts one psychoanalyst's heroic attempts to construct a potential space for hope amidst the jagged shards of adolescent lives shattered by multiple traumas. Etty Cohen achieves brilliant integration of the developmental adolescent literature and the relational perspectives on trauma, constructivism, and therapeutic change. She takes us to the very edges of what we know as analyts and invites us to abandon our therapeutic omnipotence and journey with her into uncharted regions. Somehow greater than the sum of its parts, this work takes an imaginative leap that is, at times, nothing short of inspirational."
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- Jody Messler Davies, Co-Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues
From the Publisher
The heart and strength of Cohen’s book is her vivid documentation of hands-on encounters with her adolescent patients, seen both individually and in group. Cohen makes plain that, with young people so horrendously traumatized, treatment assumes a necessarily improvisational character. And yet, she argues, even in the type of pragmatic encounters dictated by massive and repeated trauma, contemporary relational theory provides a compass with which to navigate through the rocky shoals of the clinical work. Whether juxtaposing issues of disclosure with adolescents’ love of secrets; drawing on the relational literature on enactment to comprehend more humanly the massive "acting out" of her patients; or invoking Ferenczi’s distinction between "tenderness" and "passion" to chart the course of her group’s transference engagement of her, Cohen is persuasive in showing how a relational approach enables productive therapy with this treatment-resistant population.​
Other Publications
Method of Game: Sándor Ferenczi and his Patient DM./Clara Thomson. In: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 2017
Getting into Mud Together: Trauma, Despair and Mutual Regression. In: International Forum of Psychoanalysis. 2014.
Enactments and Dissociations Driven by Cultural Differences. In: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 2007.
Going Beyond Limits Together: How Ferenczi’s Notion of Elasticity Informs Group Treatment of Traumatized Patients. In: Group. 1999.
Contemporary Applications of Ferenczi: Co-Constructing Past Traumatic Experiences through Dream Analysis. In: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 1999.
Dream Analysis: Co-Construction and Re-Construction of Traumatic Past Experiences. In: F. Borgogno (ed.) The Analyst’s Participation: Sándor Ferenczi and Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Milano: Franco Angeli Publisher. 1999.
I am the Master of the Nuts of the Whole World: Dialogues of the Unconscious, Enactments in the Treatment of a Latency Age Boy. In: Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. 1997.
You’ve lost Me, You’ve lost other People in the Group: Transference-Countertransference Matrix in the Terminationof Difficult Adolescent Patients in Group Therapy. In: Journal of Cild and Adolescent Group Therapy. 1996.
Presentations
“The Method of Game”: Sándor Ferenczi and his Patient Dm./Clara Thompson, presented at the 12th International Sándor Ferenczi Conference: The Heritage of a Psychoanalytic Mind. Toronto, Canada, May 8, 2015.
The Vicissitudes of Enactment in Analysis of Traumatized Female Patients – from Freud and Ferenczi to Contemporary Psychoanalysis, presented at the Sincerity and Freedom in Psychoanalysis. London, October 18, 2013.
Getting into Mud Together: Trauma, Despair and Mutual Regression, presented at the 11th International Sándor Ferenzi conference: Faces of Trauma, Budapest, Hungary, June 1st, 2012
A Long Road to an Awakening: Therapeutic Transformation through Surrender of the Analyst’s Despair, presented at The New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis, November, 2009
“How Do We Find Hope when W Can’t Face Our Despair?” Termination Process in Treating Multiply Traumatized Adolescents Surviving Inner City Life, presented at WestCoast Children’s Clinic, Oakland, 2009.
“Keep Your Pants On!” “He was with his Eyes Open”: Co-Constructing sexual and War Traumas through Dream Analysis, presented at Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, New York, March, 2007.
Surviving Middle East Terrorism: War Dreams and the Therapeutic Situation, presented at The National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (NMCOP) on “Psychoanalysis: Changing in a Changing Word”, New York, 2004.
Enactments and Dissociations Driven by Cultural Differences, presented at APA Division 39 on “Psychoanalysis at the Edge: The Transmission of Culture, Class and Institution,” Miami Beach, Florida, 2003.
Beyond the Limit: Ferenczi’s Inner Struggles in his Clinical Diary, presented at the International Conference on “Clinical Sándor Ferenczi. Turin, Italy, 2002.
Gender in the Dyad in the Treatment of Sexually Traumatized Patients, presented at the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work. New York, 2001.
The Cross-Class/Cultural Dyad: Mutual Enactments, Mutual Dissociations, presented at the International Conference on : Multiculturalism in Social Work and Mental Health Practice, Co-Sponsored by NYU School of Social Work and the Tavistock Clinic, Barcelona, Spain, 2000.
“Dialogues of the Unconscious.” Analyst’s Self-Disclosure and Enactments in Treating Traumatized Patients: Therapeutic or Ruinous, presented at the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work. New York, 2000
Contemporary Applications of Ferenczi: Co-Constructing Past Traumatic Experiences through Dream Analysis, presented at the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society. New York, 2000.
Group Psychotherapy with Unemployed Group Members: From Dissociation to Conflict and to Multiplicity, presented at the AGPA Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, 2000.
The Life and Work of Sándor Ferenczi, presented at the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society. Massachusetts, 1999
Following Ferenczi: Following the Difficult Patient, presented at the Sándor Ferenczi International Conference on “Ferenczi and Contemporary Psychoanalysis”. Madrid, Spain, 1998.
Early Active Engagement with Patients: Ferenczi’s Empathic Approach, presented at the conference Co-Sponsored by NYU School of Social Work and the Tavistock Clinic. Florence, Italy, 1998.
The Relevance of Ferenczi’s Concept of Elasticity in Treating Difficult Patients in Group, presented at the Therapy Alumni Association, PCMH. New York, 1997.
A Matter of Time: Adolescents’ Reactions to Parental AIDS in Group Psychotherapy, presented at the American Group Psychotherapy Association Conference. San Francisco, 1996.
“How Do I Tell My Kids?” Talking to Children about HIV, presented at PCMH. New York, 1996.
Confusion of Tongues Experiences in the Time of AIDS: Six Girls in Search of Tenderness, presented at the First Ferenczi Congress of Latin America, Sao, Paulo, Brazil, 1995.
Group Therapy for Teenage Girls whose Parents are Dying from AIDS, presented at the First Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health Care. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 1995.