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  • Title: The transgenerational transmission of holocaust trauma. Lessons learned from the analysis of an adolescent with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
    Author: Fonagy P.
    Journal: Attach Hum Dev; 1999 Apr; 1(1):92-114. PubMed ID: 11707884.
    Abstract:
    This paper outlines an attachment-theory based model of transgenerational trauma inspired by the successful psychoanalytic treatment of a severely disturbed adolescent with obsessive-compulsive disorder who was the first child of the first daughter of a holocaust survivor. It is proposed that the transmission of specific traumatic ideas across generations may be mediated by a vulnerability to dissociative states established in the infant by frightened or frightening caregiving, which, in its turn, is trauma-related. Disorganized attachment behaviour in infancy may indicate an absence of self-organization, or a dissociative core self. This leaves the child susceptible to the internalization of sets of trauma-related ideation from the attachment figure, which remain unintegrated in the self-structure and cannot be reflected on or thought about. The disturbing effect of these ideas may be relatively easily addressed by a psychotherapeutic treatment approach that emphasizes the importance of mentalization and the role of playful engagement with feelings and beliefs rather than a classical insight-oriented, interpretive approach.
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