Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma: Guilt, Shame, and the "Heroic Dilemma"

The central point in these formulations is that the traumatic experiences of one generation can be transmitted unconsciously to the second, and often third generation, in some fashion, such that these children and grandchildren find themselves living out-in their private or professional lives-certain aspects of the original traumata in a way that they cannot recognize or understand because the origins are hidden. It can indeed become an unpleasant impetus toward establishing an early feeling of separate individual subjectivity and responsibility in the small child.\n In the small groups, progress was often very slow, since the participants seemed highly inhibited toward asking for or revealing intimate details of their personal lives.