The transgenerational transmission of holocaust trauma

Abstract

This paper outlines an attachment-theory based model of transgenerational trauma inspired by the successful psychoanalytic treatment of a severely disturbed adolescent with obsessive-compulsive disorder who was the first child of the first daughter of a holocaust survivor. It is proposed that the transmission of specific traumatic ideas across generations may be mediated by a vulnerability to dissociative states established in the infant by frightened or frightening caregiving, which, in its turn, is trauma-related. Disorganized attachment behaviour in infancy may indicate an absence of self-organization, or a dissociative core self. This leaves the child susceptible to the internalization of sets of trauma-related ideation from the attachment figure, which remain unintegrated in the self-structure and cannot be reflected on or thought about. The disturbing effect of these ideas may be relatively easily addressed by a psychotherapeutic treatment approach that emphasizes the importance of mentalization and the role of playful engagement with feelings and beliefs rather than a classical insight-oriented, interpretive approach.