Transgenerational Trauma Unfolded: A Qualitative Case Study of a Young Child’s Psychothera-py

Abstract

This qualitative research study concerns the complexity of the concept of transgenerational trauma as unfolded in a child psychotherapy with a 3½-7 ys. old boy, referred for psychological assessment and treatment because of severe developmental delay, prolonged separation protests and oppositional behaviour. A systematic inductive-deductive qualitative analysis of the therapist’s detailed notes of therapy sessions was carried out. This yielded four intertwined sources of anxiety in mind of the young child, together blocking his mental-emotional development: 1) Introjective identification with parental trauma and loss. 2) His own traumatic anxiety left by a dog attack and an episode of stone-throwing. 3) Precocious awareness of social discrimination. 4) Age-appropriate, but undigested developmental phantasy and related anxiety, conflict, and defense. In conclusion, this study elucidates the complexity of second generation experience, even in young children, when considered in the psychosocial context of growing up. We know that severe retardation of early development may have lasting consequences for the child’s further personality development and cognitive abilities. It is therefore vital that psychological and medical practitioners working with massively traumatised parents are aware of the complex relationships between parental anxiety and their young children’s development of attachment and related separation-individuation.