Intergenerational Trauma: The Wound that Keeps on Wounding
Kristin Dean
Also known as generational trauma, intergenerational trauma is the passing on of the effects of unresolved physical or emotional trauma from one generation to the next, causing ongoing psychological and emotional wounding and pain. Often perpetuated through the adoption of coping mechanisms that were once adaptive for the survivor but are maladaptive for those who follow, the effects of the trauma turn into a repeating cycle that affects subsequent generations who did not experience the original event, shaping their mental health and influencing their behavioral and relational patterns as well. The concept of intergenerational trauma originated during the 1960s when researchers studying children of Holocaust survivors noted that in some...
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