ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author looks closely at the notion of “trauma transmission”. Intuitively, it seems quite plausible that growing up with traumatised parents may be traumatising for their children. In some cases, like, for example, violent families, there may be an apparently obvious “transmission pathway”, through the repetition of the same kind of violent behaviour that the now adult child suffered, being directed towards his or her own children. Each generation, in turn, thus experiences the same type of trauma. The offspring of Holocaust survivors, at any rate, have had a completely different experience to that of their parents. Furthermore, their parents, the survivors, are on the whole highly protective and caring parents, who rarely manifest abusive behaviour towards their children. It appears that the process of emerging from immersion into relatedness is universally impaired in Holocaust survivors’ families. The author explores the long-term costs of surviving massive trauma.
