Walking the Fine Line of Enactment: Elasticity of Technique with Traumatized Patients: Playing Hard at Life: A Relational Approach to Treating Multiply Traumatized Adolescents, by Etty Cohen (2003). Hillsdale, NJ:  The Analytic Press,  230 pages.

“The analyst, like an elastic band, must yield to the patient's pull, but without ceasing to pull in his own direction.” (Ferenczi, 1928, p. 95)

Etty Cohen's book is an exciting contribution to the literature on psychoanalytic work with trauma. It is also a fine example of how relational analysts at their best let the reader into their clinical and emotional processes, a task which the author accomplishes in an admirably straightforward and down-to-earth manner. The book has something for everyone. For the less experienced clinician, it offers a wealth of clinical material including detailed examples of analyst-patient interactions. For the more experienced clinician, it offers a pithy review of contemporary relational thinking and some thought-provoking ideas about enactments.

The author's goal is to develop and apply a relational-constructivist approach to the treatment of traumatized adolescents, a group of patients who have received relatively little attention in the psychoanalytic literature. The author brings to this book a wealth of experience in working with adolescents. She began her career as a major in the Mental Health Corps of the Israeli Defense Forces, working with traumatized soldiers, many of whom