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5
Trans-generational and
Inter-generational Trauma
Dr Elya Steinberg & Gerhard Payrhuber
Introduction
Trans-generational trauma represents a form of trauma that has been
transferred from the generation of survivors who have experienced (or
witnessed) the catastrophe or atrocities directly. This could be a natural trauma
(like an earthquake or tsunami), or a man-made one (such as the Holocaust, or
the genocidal wars in the Balkans and Rwanda). It is also possible to examine
the ‘‘trans-generational’ transmission of trauma in a wider perspective, as
trauma passed through the relationship of ancestors and descendants as well
as the parent-child couple. ‘Intergenerational’ transmission of trauma is that
which is passed on through the relationship between parents and children:
“The intergenerational trauma and trans-generational trauma interact
with each other and will produce another quality of the trans-generational
phenomenon” (Payrhuber, 2011, p. 27). There is also a strong body of evidence
in the literature that the phenomenon transmits in utero, and post-natally as
a pre-verbal experience. The literature also shows that the most devastating
impacts develop as a result of the man-made historical traumas inflicted
upon communities and individuals. Nowadays, we are aware that trauma
can be passed down to the second and further generations of the offspring of
the survivors via a complex and interconnected set of post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) mechanisms. The traumatic traces, ‘like a child’s footprint in
wet cement’, are often preserved for generations’ (Felitti, 2010) and become
‘The Hidden Epidemic’ that can disturb health.

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Mechanisms of the Transmission of Trauma from Generation to Generation
PTSD mechanisms operate on the somatic, relational, emotional,
attachment social planes. The somatic mechanism affects the bio-molecular,
genetic andepi-genetic mechanisms, (including hormones like cortisol),
the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, brain development, the
Autonomic Nerve System (ANS), physiological regulation and posture. The
relational mechanism includes the fundamental flow of engaged interactions
that people have through their entire life, including before birth. The main
characteristics of the emotional mechanism are the individual’s capacity
for emotional regulation. The attachment mechanism develops throughout
childhood, enabling a person to build an attachment system, be it secure
or insecure. It is through social mechanisms, Felicitas de Zulueta (2007)
argues, that individuals develop the strongest and most important resilience
in response to historical traumas.
The historical conflicts remain within the second-generation (or more
distant) survivor, moment by moment, on a daily basis, embedded in self,
body, spirit and mind. We are just left with the unfulfilled desire to forget, as
Apelfeld (1971), an Holocaust survivor and a writer expressed: “A person
innocently believes that he can escape under the thin shield of oblivion;
cuddle up in a deserted room and sleep, and every day kill his memories
until they die.”
The phenomenon of children (and even grandchildren) of traumatized
parents being affected, either directly or indirectly, by their parents’
post-traumatic symptoms has been described by some authors as “secondary
traumatisation”). Volkan (2002) talks about “deposited representations”
(p. 36) where children’s core identities are flooded with the injured self- and
internalized object-images and associated affects that belong to the original
victims, their caregivers, or parents.
Where the third generation is similarly affected, we use the term
“inter-generational” transmission of trauma. We know further that
traumatised individuals can neglect or abuse their offspring, as well as
other members of the human race – and, of course, themselves. This is a
relatively rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom. The neuro-evolution
of empathy (Decety, 2011), if not even sympathy and compassion, is most
probably what enables the human race to survive and evolve, keeping a
precarious balance between its development and destructiveness.
Family therapists have traditionally treated both the survivors and the
immediate witnesses of traumatic events in a family’s history. But this
is usually only done when the family’s trauma has been recognized and
treatment is readily available (e.g. for the survivors of a fire, or a car crash
in which several people died). It is often the case, however, that a whole
population has suffered trauma, and thus the resources that might be
available for an individual family are just not available to such a large
group.
The first-generation of those who experienced trauma, the Holocaust
survivors, the combat veterans, hostages, prisoners of war, survivors of
disasters, etc., often get some nominal help, reasonably quickly, but this
is usually not enough, and people are effectively told to “live with it” or
“get over it”. Reactions to the trauma in the survivors of such experiences
often do not surface for quite a time, and it is only relatively recently that
PTSD has been properly recognised. Suitable treatments, schedules, and
intervention strategies are an even more recent development. Quick-fix
solutions, and techniques such as EMDR, will not work for everyone.
Before the understanding of PTSD and the transmission of trauma
through generations was developed, literature showed that the incapacity
of both the mental profession and society to cope with trauma resulted
in a phenomenon called the “conspiracy of silence”. The ‘conspiracy of
Silence’ between Holocaust survivors and the wider societies in which
they lived and still live, (Danieli, 1994), including mental health and other
helping professionals, has proven detrimental to survivors’ familial and
socio-cultural reintegration by intensifying their already profound sense
of isolation, loneliness and mistrust of society. We believe that this has
further impeded the possibility of their intra-psychic integration and
healing, and made their task of mourning their massive losses almost
impossible.”
The human perpetrators of large-scale and genocidal experiences are
nominally supposed to be dealt with within the confines of the political
arena, and by the courts and international law. Where this happens,
the victims of the trauma can get some recognition – and possibly even
some relief – as with the reasonably successful Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, established after South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime was
ended. According to government reports, these commissions can provide

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a degree of proof against any historical revisionism of state terrorism and
other crimes against humanity, as well as human rights’ abuses. Truth
commissions are sometimes criticised for allowing crimes to go unpunished,
and for allowing impunity for serious human rights abusers. Their roles and
abilities in this respect depend on their mandates, which vary widely. Often,
there is a public mandate to bring past human rights violators to justice,
although in some cases (such as in Argentina after 1983 and Chile after
1990), abuses of human rights have gone unpunished be the law courts
or the truth commissions, due to threats of anti-democratic coups by the
powerful parties who endured in the military. In this sense, the militaries in
question have effectively ceded control to a civilian government, with the
‘caveat’ that the ending of their military rule must be ‘rewarded’ with a full
amnesty for any of their past crimes. In some cases, such as the Argentinean
“Full Stop”, the law has actually prevented the prosecution of officers of
the military junta. It is hard to believe that this specific immunity has been
enshrined in law under a civilian government. It does also not do much for
the survivors of their injustices.
The civilian population that was victimized at the hands of war criminals,
or from “failed state” organizations, such as the Nazi party in Germany,
the Fascists in Italy, or the Taliban in Afghanistan, may obtain some small
redress after the traumatic events. However, their descendants have often
had to deal with the symptoms of the victimization of their parents and the
community themselves, without the transfer of the original trauma being
recognized or any help being offered. Often – because of the attempts at
redress – there is an amnesty or “full-stop” put on any healing processes –
thus there is an active process against trans-generational trauma being able
to be dealt with appropriately.
Human atrocities in forms of war, torture, genocide and mass killings
leave their legacies in both the individual and the collective psyche. Most
cultures seem to share a tendency to silence traumatic histories (Schwab,
2010, p. 79). But trauma can never be completely erased or forgotten and
so it gets handed down unconsciously instead. Thus traumatic amnesia can
become inscribed as a cultural and psychic practice.
We are nowadays more aware that such aspects of trans-generational
trauma can affect the formation of attachment systems in childhood and
can prove a wounding presence into our adult lives. We can also assume
that such phenomena might also impact deeply on the subjectivity of
the practitioner, mainly via an implicit transferential process, projective
identification and re-enactment of explicit neglect and abuse. In our
workshop in the Congress, we will therefore focus on how to remain
‘present’ and embodied, as therapists, when confronted with complex and
interwoven dynamics triggered by trans-generational trauma, including
the very complex and toxic states of guilt and shame, and intense and
overwhelming hate; we will focus on the vital development of an empathic,
as well as a present witness.
As Body Psychotherapists, we are also particularly interested in the
somatic, relational and emotional aspects of trans-generational trauma,
and particularly how this can be attended to in psychotherapy. We believe
that the presence of an ‘embodied sensitivity’ – the therapeutic practitioner
– can make contact with the traumatized clients’ often unspoken bodily
processes.
We argue that it is the ethical responsibility of the therapists to develop
a “trans-generational sensitivity” in order to work with those clients who
struggle to live and survive this particularly poisonous legacy: and this
really is possible. In this presentation, we offer a space to explore, share
and reflect on our experiences of trans-generational relational processes
and their clinical importance. We will explore how trans-generational and
inter-generational trauma is created, and how it unfolds, and becomes
embodied, using, in particular, the example of the Holocaust.
“Attending to the Silence”: A Post-Holocaust-Trauma-Group
One method of addressing trans-generational trauma is to develop the solid
and coherent frame of a “trauma group” for those similarly affected. Whilst
these people are sometimes difficult to identify, and may not specifically
acknowledge that they need help, this type of therapeutic help gives a degree
of support and safety for identifying the trauma and allowing us (all) to work
with it.
We also believe that the Second World War, and especially the Holocaust
and its aftermath – which affected many of our parents – are still having
a fundamental impact on our minds and bodies, even though we may not
have had any direct experience of the trauma ourselves. Just over half a
century ago, the unthinkable and unimaginable had happened and we, the

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second and third post-Holocaust generations, are finding that we are still
having to deal with one of the most devastating, brutal and de-humanising
experiences in human history. There are, of course, thousands of people
in similar situations from the Middle East, Africa, South America, Eastern
Europe and Spain, who may well be present at this Congress; hopefully,
they will recognise their trans-generational legacy and that they could
benefit from our workshop.
We are aware that we are confronted with a complex traumatic
phenomenon that has national, political, sociological, relational,
psychological and biological effects, which are part of many of our lives
and thus our embodied psyches. The traumatic traces are often preserved
(or have an impact) for several generations. Many of us know of people who
were murdered or fundamentally damaged by the Nazi atrocities. Many of
us have also to make sense of a most painful past and the most gruesome
inter- and trans-generational inheritance, by either belonging to one side
of these horrors, or by being from families who combine the culture and
background of victims and perpetrators alike.
In this sense, we dedicate this type of group-work to the sons, grandsons,
daughters and granddaughters of ‘Shoah’ victims, perpetrators, and also to
the passively complicit by-standers. In the shadow of Nazi genocide, the
development of our identities and our deeper sense of selves is, at the very
least, a difficult and intensely painful struggle. This group offers space and
time to explore, share and reflect on our experiences, in order to be able to
grow, develop, experience pleasure and joy, and allow some personal healing
to emerge. Deep inside, we might still be paralysed by shock and silenced
by this particular catastrophe and our own inability to find a language to
express what has happened. Wordless suffering and shtika (silencing) are of
central significance for the second and third generations of the Shoah. We
now know that this kind of silence prevents healing.
Identifying the processes of trans-generational and inter-generational
trauma is a crucial step. The Body Psychotherapist’s work, with its embodied
sensitivity to trauma, permits the felt sense of traumatic events in the bodies
of both the client and the psychotherapist. As psychotherapists, working in
embodied relational ways, with the dynamic of the trauma transmission,
we can also experience the phenomenon of “empathy fatigue”. This lives
in the therapist as a ‘felt sense’ of being ‘pushed into’ one apex of the
perpetrator – victim – bystander triangle. The re-enactments of these
different roles have different, unspoken and embodied characteristics that
are crucial to recognise. We can experience the fragility of our empathy
in struggling, together with our clients, to find solutions outside of this
triangle.
Being able to identify with the traumatised person is an important, but
painful, first step. This seems to be true for all sides – victims as much as
perpetrators, and bystanders – as well as their descendants, the second and
the subsequent generations. In our trans-generational trauma group, we
explore the possibilities of building bridges together, with hopes for truth
and reconciliation – internally as well as interpersonally. Let us attend to
our silence!
References
Apelfeld, A. (1971). Ha-‘Or veha-kutonet [The Skin and Gown]. Tel Aviv:
Am ‘Oved Press.
Danieli, Y. (1994). Trauma to the family: Intergenerational sources of
vulnerability and resilience. In: J.T. Reese & E. Scrivner (Eds.) The law
enforcement families: Issues and answers, (pp. 163–175). Washington,
DC: United States Department of Justice.
Decety, J. (2011). The neuro-evololution of empathy. Annals of the New
York Academy of Sciences: Social Neuroscience: Gene, Environment,
Brain, Body, Vol. 1231, pp. 35–45.
de Zulueta, C.F. (2007). Mass violence and mental health: Attachment and
trauma. International Review of Psychiatry, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 221-233.
Felitti, V.J. (2010). Introduction to: R. Lanius & E. Vermetten (Eds.) The
Hidden Epidemic: The impact of early life trauma on health and disease.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Payrhuber, G. (2011). In the Realm of the Undead: Transgenerational
Transference and its Enactments. The British Journal of Psychotherapy
Integration, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 27-46.
Schwab, G. (2010) Haunting Legacies. Violent histories and transgenerational
trauma. New York: Columbia University Press.
Volkan, V.D. et al. (2002) The Third Reich in the Unconscious:
Transgenerational transmission and its consequences. New York:
Brunner-Routledge.

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Presenters
Elya Steinberg is an Israeli-British medical doctor
and a UKCP-registered Biodynamic Psychotherapist.
Dr Elya Steinberg, MD, is Co-Director of the Centre
for Biodynamic Psychotherapy (London School
of Biodynamic Psychotherapy). She interweaves
alternative and conventional approaches to allow a
person to grow as a holistic complex.
Email: elya.steinberg@virgin.net
Gerhard Payrhuber, MSc, MPhil., is an Austrian
UKCP-registered Integrative Psychotherapist, who
works in a relational framework and lives and works
in London, UK.
Email: psychotherapy@gerhardpayrhuber.com
Both have worked for many years in the field of trauma, are experienced
presenters, and co-facilitate an ongoing therapy group in North London
entitled ‘The Post Holocaust Generations – All Sides: Attending to the
Silence’.
6
Modern Functionalism in
Psychological Emergencies
Enrica Pedrelli & Luciano Rispoli
Psychological Emergencies
Recently, there have been more and more natural catastrophes that cause
human disasters and widespread deep shock. “Modern Functionalism”
can intervene usefully in the field of ‘emergency psychology’ with a way of
working that can support the psychologist or psychotherapist’s job in their
interventions with victims of disaster.
We are experimenting with a model of intervention for the victim in
conditions of acute distress, and we call this “Functional Rebalancing”.
An intervention with adequate functional techniques that support the
integration of “Basic Functional Processes” allows the rescue workers to
help to stabilise the victims emotionally and to help them to re-balance their
autonomic nervous system (ANS), immediately after the emergency. This
minimises their shock and trauma and helps restore their basic functioning
capacities.
But first of all: What is Modern Functionalism? Modern Functionalism
takes into consideration (besides the formulations of early functionalism)
a number of psycho-physiological studies (Selye, Laborit, Hinde etc.):
i.e. psychotherapies that work with the body, as well as the most recent
contributions of neuroscience, psycho-neuro-endocrin-immunology and
research on the neo-natal phase. It is based, in particular, on clinical practice
and on active research related to people’s childhoods. Years of activity
and research have definitely underlined that the concepts of the “body”