Abstract
The potential for ‘historical trauma’ is deeply rooted within the evolved human mind, which constructs its reality through narrative in the shape of personally and culturally relevant stories. From its roots within psychoanalytic theory and practice and through its clear links with infant attachment, historical trauma can be theoretically linked with stress biology and the concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Via this trajectory, it has the potential to become more commonly drawn upon in the field of public health, despite inconclusive attempts to link it to social epigenetics. It is proposed that when the historical trauma narrative invades family histories via negative experiences that have deeply impacted upon the lives of ancestors, descendants may be drawn to ‘traumatic reenactment’ through fantasy. This is explored with reference to my own recently published novel, examining its content through the perspective of the ‘psychic work’ it represents with respect to reconciling the self to the traumatic experiences of ancestors.
Highlights
The Story of the Story: Its Place in Human LivesWhat place does storytelling hold in human life? This is a question I focused upon in a previous article for Genealogy “Not just once upon a time’ (Jarvis 2019)
Viewed from the perspective of human beings as a ‘storying animal’ sharing abstract thoughts shaped by overarching narratives recounted within culturally relevant story forms, the links become more obvious
My own experience of drawing upon the historical trauma narrative through the crafting of a novel based on ancestral events serves as a useful example of ‘traumatic reenactment’ though fantasy, a phenomenon which may be a commonplace mechanism in creative human storying
Summary
What place does storytelling hold in human life? This is a question I focused upon in a previous article for Genealogy “Not just once upon a time’ (Jarvis 2019). While this may make ancestry research sound like a somewhat shallow and narcissistic pursuit, Lima (2019) posits that there are deeper psychological and sociological benefits in family history research for those who tell the stories, those who listen to them and the communities in which they are immersed She proposes those who tell such stories are led to actively explore their identities and through so doing, may find increased psychic coherence; those who listen begin to realize that their story did not start from a blank slate at the beginning of their own life, and may become inspired by ancestors who have shown courage, if they have survived against steep odds. Lents (2018) considers the benefits and detriments of becoming over-immersed in family history, citing the mass media influenced quest for a heroic and highly relatable story He proposes that this leads to a tendency to think of distant ancestors, those who lived in other parts of the world, as more similar to the self than would have been possible. There is an aspect of ancestry that underpins an arena of academic research and therapeutic methods within psychology: the devastating impact of historical trauma upon those whose ancestors’ lives were shattered by tragedy
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