ABSTRACT
In this chapter, drawing on findings from Holocaust research, we examine the traumatic experience from the viewpoint of transgenerational transmission, exploring which factors give the individual a good chance of processing the traumatic event healthily, enabling him to integrate the traumatic experience into his personality. And counter to this, we look at which factors hamper the process of integration. As a result of unprocessed trauma, we ask in what way the self is damaged and what (predominantly pathological) corrective mechanisms emerge to defend the self against complete disintegration. We examine how, due to splitting and projections, personal, diverse me-experiences are resolved in a generalized, group-level we-experience, and how a transgenerational atmosphere is created, thus anticipating the transgenerational transmission of the trauma. In this connection we discuss how psychological processes at the individual level are affected if the individual is subject to trauma as a member of a group, and the role in transgenerational transmission of the mirroring and containing capacity of society, the environment in the broader sense.
