Transgenerational Trauma

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The topic of transgenerational trauma, often is closely related to the concept of “collective trauma”, which is a psychological trauma received by a group of people, even an entire society, as a result of a social, ecological or man-made disaster or criminal actions of other subjects. Some sources indicate that this is a trauma that affected a large number of people, but not in a historical context, but as a manifestation of public memory (collective memory) of terrible events that happened in the past.

The main distinguishing features of collective trauma are two: first, it occurs in a large number of people, both direct participants and even those not directly involved in the event or disaster itself, that is, collective trauma is not limited in space; secondly – collective trauma is not limited in time, it can have its impact not only on the generation that experiences it, but also on the following ones through historical memory and other anchoring mechanisms.

Collective catastrophes in which many people died (such as wars, ethnic violence, repression, economic and environmental crises, etc.) led to the awareness of the depth of shocks and the magnitude of the consequences of traumatization, which lead to emotional and behavioral distortions, manifested in future generations, and self-identification problems, both in victims and torturers.

Researchers first drew attention to collective trauma and its intergenerational transmission in the 1970s, when psychiatrists observed behavioral problems such as low self-esteem, nightmares, anxiety, and guilt in children of parents who survived the Holocaust. Similar problems were observed in children of Vietnam veterans. Some experts write about the post-genocide consequences for the mental health of the descendants of individuals who had PTSD. Refers to depressive, aggressive, and anxiety symptoms, childhood behavioral difficulties, hyperactivity, and peer problems in the offspring of survivors of World War II, the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, the Croatian War of Independence, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Isfahani.

Often in works there is a mystification of this concept, the introduction of a certain sacred meaning, as if there is an invisible connection between the transmission of the experience of generations. Some authors point out that this is the transmission of certain “complexes” – repressed emotional conflicts in the family (K. Jung), some – that these are “ghosts” and “cellars” of generations (N. Abraham), and others point to intergenerational debts (Françoise Dolto), and in modern Western literature, authors increasingly try to rationalize this phenomenon and actively associate it with genes or a hormonal cocktail that the child received in the womb.

The concept referred, draws inspiration from ancient legends, myths, and fairy tales, such as folktale about the “Seal skin.” This narrative is prevalent in regions near cold seas or waters, with variations found among the Celts, Scots, northwestern Native American tribes, and Icelanders. The story unveils a manifestation of transgenerational trauma, wherein a devoted mother is compelled to fulfill her destiny, leaving her child behind to return to her native ocean. As she bids farewell, she prophesies that her child’s fate will echo hers — a prediction that foreshadows the child’s eventual departure from home. Throughout his life, the son feels an irresistible pull toward the ocean, signaling a high likelihood that, influenced by the desire to escape (his trauma), he too will leave his loved ones in the future. This narrative beautifully captures the enduring theme of ancestral trauma, illustrating how the experiences of one generation can shape the destiny of those that follow. 

The difficulty of any trauma lies in the fact that it is not realized, and therefore not verbalized (“things are not called by their names”). Collective trauma requires some processing. It also insinuates the area of what can be talked about, which is usually closely related to social restrictions, interpretations and taboos. With the increase in the number of silenced emotional experiences, there is an accumulation of negative manifestations, which can be observed in numerous migrations, emotional breaks, teenage suicides, and disorganization. Thus, the offspring become a certain “container” for the unexperienced grief, the guilt of their parents. They actually have to live in two realities – their own, and the one that belongs to the traumatic history of their parents. Because of this, a person alone does not always manage to include a traumatic experience in a narrative of a higher level, for this a public discussion of the historical truth about traumatic events, about their denial and possible protective mechanisms is necessary.

In the psychoanalytic origins of family psychotherapy, the idea of intergenerational (i.e., transgenerational) transmission is associated with the concepts of “repressed conflict” and “symbiosis of generations.” Psychoanalysts have identified a wide range of topics that reflect the qualities characteristic of family, as a rule, conflict, often unconscious, and this undecidedness in the previous generation determines its transmission to the next. All this is reflected in the themes: victims and survivors. One of the options for how this mechanism of intergenerational transmission arises, from the point of view of various scientists, is symbiosis, which was seen as an inseparable and unconscious connection between generations.

The main factors of traumatization and a number of general characteristics of collective trauma are following: the scale of the event, the level of experiencing injustice (the degree of innocence of the victims), the inability to resist the action of the tragedy (often forced passivity of the victims) and the inability to react emotionally to the tragedy (due to, for example, a ban).

Even if the topic is forbidden in the family, it still (and even precisely because of denial or silence) affects its members and descendants: F. Dolto, French psychotherapist, wrote that everything that one generation is silent about, the next carries in his body.

The traumatic experience of one generation can unconsciously be transmitted to the second, and sometimes even to the third generation, in such a way that children and grandchildren carry certain aspects of the original trauma into their personal or professional lives. Sometimes it is not even possible to recognize or understand the origin, because it is somehow hidden. But at the same time, the authors agree that if the initial experiences were conscious, then later unconscious repetitions would be less serious or could even disappear altogether. That is, it is possible to assume that if the first generation of survivors had been able to consciously communicate their experiences and suffering to their children in an appropriate and meaningful way, then transgenerational trauma might not have occurred, although there is still little evidence for this. However, authors such as Primo Levi (1986) or Kertész (1992) have argued that this can be an almost impossible achievement because it means giving clarity and meaning to actions that are sometimes so barbaric that they can be beyond normal human experience. 

In general, the three most common types of transmission of trauma between generations can be distinguished. 

• The first is socio-cultural, that is, the transmission of patterns of relationships, behavior and worldview beliefs at the cultural, interpersonal and social levels through communication, empathy, socialization, observation, imitation, community rules and child rearing. 
• The second type of transmission is epigenetic, that is, the inheritance of changes caused by trauma to offspring. It is about changes in the nervous systems of parents who have undergone a traumatic experience. 
• A third type of trauma transmission involves the unconscious reproduction of parents’ behaviors and attitudes by children (this type is also related to sociocultural/neurobiological transmission).

As for modern studies of transgenerational trauma, DNA research is given, that is, how the manifestation of certain factors in the past generation can have an impact on descendants. And as scientists note, these studies provide sufficient grounds for stating the fact that there are grounds for concluding that there is a certain correlation.

It has long been established that PTSD arises as a result of trauma, and it was believed that only environmental factors would contribute to the development of PTSD. However, in twin studies, the heritability of PTSD ranges from 30% to 70%. Genetic studies of both candidate genes and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded many interesting and promising findings, but no reliable genetic variants for PTSD have been identified (so far). This risk can hardly be fully explained by structural genetics alone.

To sum it up, transgenerational trauma is a topic that has not been studied profoundly, because it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to find a correlation between ancestors and generations. It is hindered by a number of reasons: information between generations may be poorly transmitted, some aspects of ancestors may be deliberately kept silent by the family, or even the connection is interrupted (when one of the ancestors is an orphan). But this study is undoubtedly relevant due to the justification of the existence of a certain correlation between the experience of the past, present and future. It also contributes to a better study of one’s kind, and awareness of the characteristics of one’s ancestors, it contributes to an individual’s better awareness of oneself, uncovering one’s “I” and “dark sides”.

By Iryna Falkivska 

iryna.falkivska01@icatt.it

References

1. Danieli, Y. (1998). Families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: Some short and long#term effects. Research Perspective. International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma, 6, 43-68.
2. Rousseau, C., Drapeau, A. (1998). The impact of culture on the transmission of trauma: Refugees’ stories and silence embodied in their children’s lives. International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma, 6, 465-486.
3. Rowland-Klein, D., Dunlop, R. (1998). The transmission of trauma across generations: identification with parental trauma in children of Holocaust survivors. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 32(3), 358-69.
4. Abrams M. S. Intergenerational transmission of trauma: Recent contributions from the literature of family systems approaches to treatment / M. S. Abrams / American Journal of Psychotherapy, 1999, Vol. 53(2), рр. 225- 231.