ABSTRACT
The heterogeneity of responses of families of survivors to their Holocaust and post-Holocaust life experiences, described within and beyond the current notions of post-traumatic stress disorder, emphasizes the need to guard against expecting all victim-survivors to behave in a uniform fashion and to match appropriate therapeutic interventions to particular forms of reaction. The discussion delineates the meanings of the victimization rupture, preventive and reparative goals, and principles and modalities of treatment (professional and self-help) of the long-term effects and intergenerational transmission of the traumata. Highly needed training, which is traditionally absent, should include working through therapists’ “countertransference” difficulties.
