Vivienne Cohen
1st November 1926 (London, UK) – 15th January 2021 (Jerusalem, Israel)
Some reflections
During the late 1980s and early 90s I was part of a group of IGA trainees running our training groups in the Barts Psychotherapy department where we attended a weekly supervision group run by Vivienne.
What stands out in my experience of her is the way she conveyed a group analytic attitude together with a down to earthness and interest in each patient as an individual and in adapting our group analytic work to their specific needs.
I recall that rather than aim for the classic Foulksian 8 person group one of us should keep her group at under 6 members as this would be a better setting for two of the more fragile members. I also remember with admiration her moving seamlessly from a lucid explication of differences in working with transference in group and individual therapy to arranging for one of us to cut a ragged piece off the group room carpet lest patients trip over it
I feel fortunate to have been exposed to Vivienne’s deep understanding and experience of Group Analytic therapy coloured by her humanity and groundedness.
Jessica Mayer Johnson
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗
Vivienne was an enthusiastic promoter of Group Analysis. I worked in the same London NHS group of hospital. She was based at St. Bartholomew’s but had responsibility as a Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy for various other hospitals, including Hackney Hospital where I worked. We had an uneasy relationship for some years, often disagreeing but still managing to reach compromises. My best memory of her was when she decided that we needed to get to the bottom of it and we met in her office (her territory) and talked for a long time. Her bright blue eyes that I had experienced as steely and hostile, soften and we both talked openly. From then on, there were no more problems between us, we understood each other and she was no longer the formidable force that I had to resist.
Vivienne created at Bart’s a thriving psychotherapy department where junior psychiatrists were encouraged to learn about Group Psychotherapy and where many IGA Group Analysts conducted their training group and were supervised by her or by GAs employed by her.
I have a vivid memory of Vivienne’s warmth on that day when we finally managed to connect.
Carmen O’Leary
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗
Vivienne was a big presence in the Institute for Group Analysis [IGA]. She was a person to go to if one had queries. She was encouraging and accessible to my rather unsure self when I was new to the IGA.
As far as I remember she didn’t often attend Saturday meetings keeping faith with being Jewish.
I recall her as a vibrant and kind person. Her passion for Group Analysis kept her endlessly busy with the affairs of the Institute.
Anne Morgan
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗
As part of my training as a group analytic psychotherapist, I was very fortunate indeed to be offered an internship under Vivienne Cohen at Barts – in the Psychotherapy Unit based in William Harvey House – in the late 80s and early 90s. I trained at Goldsmiths (London University) and was the first non IGA trainee to join her supervision group of about 7 or 8. I remember feeling so incredibly green, daunted and out of my depth when interviewed by Vivienne for an internship in Barts, a place I had no idea was an important part of the GA story. I conducted my training group in her office on the first floor of William Harvey House, from where there was a wonderful view of the dome of the very adjacent St Paul’s Cathedral The experience was so rich that many of us stayed on for several years after our trainings had finished. I stayed for over 4 years, partly as I’d been generously allowed paid leave, every Wednesday afternoon, from my job as a teacher in Southwark off-site education services.
While for me the opportunity to work with Vivienne was undoubtedly a wonderful one. I did have my doubts about a service being wholly based on the work of trainees – we provided what she proudly called her ‘service on a shoestring’, a psychotherapy service more or less entirely based on the work of GA trainees, with her being I believe the only paid employee. She was as formidable as she was supportive and nurturing. Whilst many patients were also offered individual therapy (delivered by us under the supervision of Joan Reggiori, an experienced Jungian psychoanalyst) the service was essentially group based, a fact that was very much the result of Vivienne’s ability to both assess and then encourage people to see their needs being met in group. As such, the culture of the service was clearly group analytic. This ended when Vivienne retired and was replaced, significantly in my mind, by Siobhan Murphy a psychoanalyst, albeit a very good one. I had no idea at the time whether Vivienne fought for a GA to replace her but she seemed at peace with the change. This very much felt like the end of two eras, Vivienne’s as well as that of group analysis in this corner of the NHS. Just as any group is usually a great struggle to set up, a group service that involved so many (S H Foulkes included) over so many years of struggle and labour, was quietly and without fight, fuss or recrimination (at least as far as I perceived it) strangely handed over to psychoanalysis.
After departing, I lost touch with Vivienne and only briefly met her once more, much later at a large international event in London. However, in 2014 I interviewed her remotely by e-mail for this publication. She’d just been honoured by the East London NHS Trust by naming the premises of the City and Hackney Specialist Psychotherapy Service ‘Vivienne Cohen House’. The full interview is reproduced here in honour of Vivienne and the debt I feel I owe her.
Peter Zelaskowski
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗
Here Contexts Editor Peter Zelaskowski (PZ) interviews (by e-mail) Dr. Vivienne Cohen (VC) on being honoured on 27th August 2014 by East London NHS Trust, which named its official premises of the City and Hackney Specialist Psychotherapy Service ‘Vivienne Cohen House’.
According to her UK secretary Suzanne Benjamin, who acted as a go-between and put our questions to her, Dr Cohen was delighted to be asked to be interviewed.
PZ: First of all, many congratulations on receiving this wonderful tribute. Were you surprised to be honoured in this way?
VC: Yes – very much so – I was bowled over.
PZ: As the new editor of Group Analytic Contexts, I am delighted to be in a position to interview you on behalf of GASI. In 1989, you let me through a very special door in accepting my application to complete my internship at Barts, working with you and your group of IGA trainees and newly qualified group analysts. A number of people have commented on just how nurtured and well-taken-care-of they felt by you…a feeling I certainly share. ‘Once Vivienne adopted you, you really felt adopted’, as one person put it. Is this familiar to you?
VC: Yes – I enjoyed it – if I didn’t like the people then I wouldn’t have been able to do it – they were a lovely group.
PZ: Am I right in thinking you retired from the NHS in 1994?
VC: Yes
PZ: How have you been enjoying your retirement?
VC: Well I live in Israel much of the year with my children, grand-children and great grand-children. I currently have 15 great-grandchildren with one on the way. I started off in retirement by painting but I suffered collapsed vertebrae from Osteoporosis which put an end to that. I haven’t got a hobby that replaces work as such, but spend much time with my family as well as going to museums, opera, ballet and I’m still enjoying travelling.
PZ: From a position of being less involved is there anything that you would like to share about the current interests and activities of GASi?
VC: No
PZ: On the GASi forum, where this tribute was brought to our attention, a number of people have commented on how fitting that the East London NHS should honour you in this way. Please, say something about your experience and history within the NHS. I understand you started in 1962.
VC: I qualified in 1951 and started in psychiatry in 1954. I then had children and in 1962 went to work under Prof. Linford Rees who ran the acute ward at the Maudsley. He was a marvellous man to work for. I was teaching at the beginning – supervising psychiatric social workers. I then joined the Psychotherapy unit of Dr SH Foulkes at Barts. He totally inspired me to get involved with Group Psychotherapy. I only ever wanted to work for the NHS – I didn’t work privately because I don’t like the idea of giving people what they could afford. I wanted to give them what they needed.
PZ: Could you say something about the challenges you faced in developing a service, a ‘service-on-a-shoe-string’ as I remember you proudly describing it, largely based on the work of trainee and newly-qualified group analysts.
VC: The truth is that I didn’t really face challenges – everyone knew that they would not be paid – they were very happy to work for nothing in order to get the experience and my supervision which was obviously valued.
As an aside, Dr Cohen then went on to describe how they initially had 3 tiny rooms in the hospital, one of which was a converted bathroom. It had a ledge which originally must have carried the water from the urinals or such-like. One day one of the senior Dr’s was leaning back on his chair and got the chair and therefore himself stuck in the ledge – he had to be rescued – Dr Cohen was in fits of giggles as she described the scene – she said we did have a good time and a good team!! She said they then moved to a building adjacent to the hospital in Little Britain called William Harvey House – this was luxurious and elegant.
PZ: As one of the pioneering women both within NHS psychotherapy as well as within our field of group analysis, it would be fascinating to here you say something about your experience of some of the other pioneers (men and women) you worked alongside. Who influenced you? And how?
VC: Firstly I have never seen myself as a pioneer or anything special. Dr S H Foulkes whom I trained under at Barts was very influential in my career. He developed Group Psychotherapy during the war, at the psychiatric hospital for the RAF and Army at the Military Neurosis Centre at Northfield. He turned it into a series of interlocking groups – each ward had a group and a music group etc. He was a complete pioneer in the field.
Largely speaking there were no women before me in the field of Group Psychotherapy except Jan Abercrombie who was not clinical in her teaching – she was a Reader in Architecture at University College.
PZ: Looking back, do you have any regrets?
VC: No!
PZ: Do you have any comments on the current challenges facing group analysis, particularly in relation to the NHS?
VC: Group Psychotherapy is facing challenges as it is considered too time consuming. Nowadays people look for quick cures which is why behaviour therapy is popular – it rarely works long term.
PZ: Many thanks for giving us some of your time. Is there anything else you would like to add before we finish?
VC: Many thanks.
PZ: With deepest gratitude.