ABSTRACT
Transmission takes on a more pathogenic quality when it is associated with symptomatic disturbances of memory, awareness, consciousness, and identity. Children of survivors seeing combat in the Israeli army have been more vulnerable, and analytic reports from Israel, as well as our Holocaust discussion group's findings in the aftermath of 9/11, suggest a powerful merging of Holocaust pathology with here-and-now trauma. Haydee Faimberg postulates an intergenerational narcissistic problem in which the parent appropriates the capacity for experiencing pleasure from the child and is internalised as a dominating and intruding object. The seemingly delusional preoccupations and quasi-psychotic symptoms of even the most severe type of dissociative pathology may become comprehensible through an appreciation of the many vicissitudes of trauma. Through analytic therapy and other life-affirming activities that promote a reconciliation with unmetabolised introjects from the Holocaust, one may then achieve growth, healing, creativity, and the opportunity to pass on a new legacy to future generations.
