ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way we talk about ourselves and our feelings, and ultimately, the way we experience ourselves and our relationships is transmitted from generation to generation, and transmuted the process of psychotherapy. Notions such as 'the self' or an 'identificate' are abstractions from the process. The self is composed of an amalgam of relationships, past and present. The sense of self arises out of the capacity to shape these influences into a coherent whole, one that is both unique and yet clearly a link in an inter-generational chain. Coda begins a rather grandiose comparison between intergenerational transmission and the genome project. Attachment research suggests links between the observations of early life and the narrative self in adults. Gergely and Watson's ideas suggest there is a close relationship between the development of the self and secure attachment. The latter, if successful, raises enormous ethical problems for future generations.
