Shuki Cohen

Dr. Shuki Cohen is an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from New York University, a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale Medical School, and advanced degrees from institutions in Israel, including the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research focuses on psychological processes underlying ideological extremism, violence, and prejudice, with a particular emphasis on linguistic analysis of narratives and cognitive rigidity. Dr. Cohen has clinical training at NYU’s Psychodynamic Outpatient Clinic, the Albert Ellis Institute, and hospitals like Bellevue. His work bridges neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and social psychology to address complex societal conflicts.

Education:

• PhD in Clinical Psychology, New York University
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale Medical School, Department of Psychiatry
• MSc in Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
• BSc in Biochemistry (Cum Laude), Ben Gurion University, Israel

Research Interests: Dr. Cohen explores how unconscious processes influence ideological extremism, violence, and prejudice. His methodologies include psycholinguistic analysis of terrorist propaganda, statistical algorithms for detecting interaction patterns in psychoanalytic dialogues, and developing scales to measure cognitive rigidity and fanaticism. His work often intersects with geopolitical conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian context, and examines trauma’s impact on mental flexibility and healing.

Recent Work Trends: His articles span terrorism analysis, cognitive processes in radicalization, and linguistic markers of aggression. Notable projects include decoding Al-Qaeda’s propaganda and analyzing suicide bomber farewell letters. He also investigates implicit dehumanization in military narratives and develops tools for assessing sexual coercion.

Labs/Teams: Collaborations include work with the late Enrico Jones on psychoanalytic archives and interdisciplinary projects at Yale and NYU.