Ep 19 - Unconditional Love and Identity Theft: Jamie Beth Cohen on Her Dad
A lot of us end up spending a significant part of our adult lives unpacking our childhoods.
We obviously do a lot of that in therapy, for ourselves and the parents we work with. Some, like our guest, use their creative work as part of processing their past.
Today, we’re talking with Rob’s lifelong friend, author Jamie Beth Cohen. In our conversation, we revisit Jamie and Rob’s coming of age on the East Coast in the 80s and 90s, and do some speculating on what it’s like to be a kid these days. We also talk about the complicated work of conceptualizing parents who had both good and really harmful parts and how Jamie has infused her fiction and her essays with the difficult characters of her childhood.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
- How both Jamie and Rob experienced not realizing that elements of their childhoods were not normal
- How Jamie’s father’s spending and gambling shaped her relationship with money, work, and being an artist
- Why Jamie couldn’t cut ties with her father and how it impacted the behaviors she tolerated in other relationships
- How writing about her father has brought more understanding, but maybe not more peace
- The stark differences in Jamie’s experience of being a teenaged girl and her daughter’s
Learn more about Jamie Beth Cohen:
- Website
- Instagram: @wastedpretty
Learn more about I Hate You. What’s For Dinner?
Learn more about Gillian Boudreau, PhD.:
Learn more about Rob Galligan, PhD.:
Resources: