If trauma is being passed from one generation to the next, what is the mechanism of transmission? Some interesting work is being done around epigenetics – the idea that the trauma may cause genetic changes that are then transmitted to your offspring. And yet more studies have concluded that there is no clear effect whatsoever. But some research has ended up in an entirely different place, finding that trauma in a parents’ life can lead to higher resilience in children. Researchers in Northern Ireland concluded that the transmission of trauma to children of victims of the Troubles made them more prone to developing toxic stress in childhood. There are studies which do find negative impacts - that the children of holocaust survivors, for example, can experience emotional problems of their own, difficulties in relationships, in the way they function. Studies appear to indicate that the transmission of trauma to children of victims of the Troubles made them more prone to developing toxic stress in childhood. View image in fullscreen A scene from Derry in 1971. There is also a growing body of research into more indirect impacts in large historical traumas such as the eviction of Native Americans from the land, or the enslavement and transport of Africans. Since then there have been many studies looking at, for example, the children of holocaust survivors, on the grandchildren of holocaust survivors, the children of prisoners of war in the US civil war, on families in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East. “It is almost as if their parents, in an attempt to justify their survival, demanded qualities of their children which were the accumulation of their expectations of all the dead who were murdered,” he said. In 1966 a Montreal-based psychiatrist called Vivian Rakoff noted that he was seeing greater numbers of adolescent offspring of Holocaust survivors. “One aspect of suffering one or several traumas,” says Peter Fonagy, a psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist and head of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, “is a greater susceptibility to stress.” For many years conflict was seen as the main culprit, but increasingly physical and sexual abuse are thought to be triggers too. It will affect different people differently: some may be fine or suffer only a few consequences, while for others the effects may evolve into post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Trauma is what happens in our mind as a result of a particular event or series of events. “There are no barriers but there are mental barriers, psychological barriers.” ‘You internalise that, and it becomes you’ For example, in the geography of the town, or who hangs out where. “They hold the political views and the social views that link to that conflict, but they don’t make that connection.” You can see it in small ways, he says. The resentment, the anger, he says, is being taught to a newer, younger generation. The men he deals with are “very angry and resentful, and what they choose, a lot of them, is just to completely withdraw, do the minimum … you’ve learned that by serving or being part of a group you sacrificed yourself, lost friends, and you’re not better off.” They see how their fathers are and they think this is the way to be.”įor Joseph El-Khoury, a Lebanese psychiatrist who works with members of the militias that fought in the conflicts that have shaken Lebanon over the last 50 years, Saleem’s account is no surprise. “Sometimes the children are the same way. What about others? He knows men who can’t stop themselves from raging at the children, shouting, lashing out. Saleem is careful with his children, and probably even over-protective of them. But what about his family’s? There is a growing interest in the idea of transgenerational trauma (TGT) – trauma that is somehow transmitted from parent to child and on down the generations. Saleem’s experiences since the war sounds familiar to researchers who deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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