The Generational Psychological Trauma Of The Holocaust Experience - Essay Example

The Generational Psychological Trauma Of The Holocaust Experience A Short Literature Review Children of the survivors of the Holocaust have been the focus of interest by scholars, researchers, and clinicians, by their parents and by themselves as well, from the time they were born. According to Kellermann (1999), many people are interested in determining if the harrowing experiences of their parents during the Holocaust may have had an unfavourable effect on them as well. If proven, as stated by Brom and colleagues (2001), such influences would give proof of the occurrence of the passing on of psychological trauma across generations, a discovery that would be of major significance, not just for mental health patients and their providers, but also to perpetrator organisations and insurance companies (Catherall 2005) who would afterwards be held accountable for damages meted out on generations of victims. Nonetheless, for the moment, the transgenerational influences of the Holocaust on the survivors’ children are still centre of substantial debate. According to Kellermann (1999), some think that the idea of the ‘second generation’ is erroneous and that the transmission process is a misleading notion. Others ask, such as Levav and colleagues (2007), whether there is a specific field of psychology for offspring of survivors. Yet others believe that the offspring, such as Mash and Barkley (2003), and the survivors of the Holocaust themselves, are a varied group that attempts to generalise their features will have a tendency to be prejudiced. Therapists claim that it is not possible to belong to a family of Holocaust survivors without taking in some of the emotional pains of the parents. Scholars and researchers oppose, arguing that descendant generally do not show any fewer or more indications of psychopathology than similar groups (Williams-Keeler et al. 1998). During the recent decades, the literature on transmission of Holocaust trauma across generations has developed into a voluminous body of distinct psychological evidence. This knowledge has grown progressively like that of the growing modernisation of most psychological studies, from theorising that motivated empirical investigations (Carey 2006). Earlier analyses and studies of the transmission of Holocaust trauma across generations from parents to their children have distinguished between ‘direct and specific’ transmission, or a ‘mental syndrome in the survivor parent leads directly to the same specific syndrome in the child’ (ibid, p. 104), and ‘indirect and general’ transmission, or ‘a disorder in the parent makes the parent unable to function as a parent which indirectly leads to a general sense of deprivation in the child’ (Carey 2006, 104). Although such a distinction appears to be reasonable, it confounds features of the transmission process, which are roughly ‘conscious and unconscious’’, ‘manifest and tacit’, and ‘overt and covert’ (Cohen, Brom & Dasberg 2001, 3). It also falls short in conclusively differentiating the believed source of the transmission from the believed outcome of the transmission. Evidently, there is no agreement as to how to identify the discipline, some confining it to its practical definition while others add possible clarifications of its believed source. Kellerman (1999) asks, what was passed on from the survivor parents of the Holocaust to their offspring? What are the signs of distress, if any, that can be seen in survivors’ offspring? A usual theory in the medical literature was that a transmission of ‘secondary posttraumatic stress disorder’ is occurring, according to Williams-Keeler et al. 1998, indicating that because numerous survivors of the Holocaust experience PTSD, their progeny will also experience an illness of similar magnitudes with reduced percentages. When clearly relating about the Holocaust, according to Hassan (2003), the descendants appeared to be explicitly distressed by the survivor parents’ terrible experiences, even though they themselves do not have a personal experience of it. This direct ‘reversal’ of trauma was believed to have been hereditary, absorbed, or caught by the child, as if the horrific experiences of the parents were transmittable, passing on the disease to children across generations (Cohen et al. 2001). This traumatisation, as residues of the past, was possibly ‘forgotten’ or deprived, but was believed to manifest in some unreasonable behaviour or emotional trauma (Catherall 2005). Hence, when Holocaust survivors’ offspring learned to act in messy ways like the behaviour of their parents, there was an uninterrupted reversal of a unique disorder, like the general anxiety disorder, depression, PTSD, or survivor-syndrome, from parents to the offspring (Hassan 2003). The more common indications of psychopathology in survivors’ children, brought about by developmental problems instead of direct ‘reversal’, were believed to manifest in the weakly defined and contentious ‘Second Generation Syndrome’ (Levav et al. 2007). This illness was currently defined by Kellermann (1999) in DSM-IV terms as either denoting an anxiety disorder connected to different neurotic problems and particularly to identity issues, or to a personality disorder, due to damaged occupational and social functioning. The absence or presence of either general or specific psychopathology symptoms in the descendants of survivors of the Holocaust has been the core of the greatest debate between researchers and clinicians (Mash & Barkley 2003). Although psychotherapists typically studied and defined different symptoms of emotional trauma in this group, as claimed by Levav and colleagues (2007), researchers were unsuccessful in verifying these assumptions with more valid and objective processes. The following discussion of the empirical studies on the nature of transmission tries to combine earlier studies of the mental health of the offspring of Holocaust survivors. Studied groups included all in all 3,300 descendants, in comparison to an even bigger number of non-descendant respondents, and other comparison clusters (Hassan 2003). Investigations were carried out in a broad array of countries, majority are in Israel and the United States, with a small number of studies in Norway, Australia, Poland, the UK, and Canada, which represents the primary territories of post-war relocation of the survivors of Holocaust (Carey 2006). Various measurement tools were used to investigate such core factors as specific and general psychopathology, general health, ego strength, self-esteem, adjustment patterns, and personality functioning (Carey 2006). A number of studies comprise an assessment of specific indications of PTSD, thought to have been passed on to the descendants from their roughly traumatised parents. The apparent partialities of self-report tools were recognised and efforts were exerted to replace these with more neutral tools, such as ‘blind’ assessments (Brom et al. 2001). Lastly, reliability and validity information of the assessment tools were reported with enlarged regularity, alongside enhanced sampling methods, trying to cope with self-selection of respondents (Cohen et al. 2001). Among the clinical groups of descendants studied, it is less unexpected to determine symptoms of psychological trauma in many of the studies (Levav et al. 2007). Instead of continuing to investigate the pervasiveness of psychopathology in this group, future studies should concentrate on determining the demographic variables that enlarge the possibility of forming psychopathology as an outcome of the traumatisation of the parents. It will be the duty of future studies to identify these variables in a more accurate and objective way. Annotated Bibliography 1) Brom, D., Kfir, R., & Dasberg, H. (2001). ‘A Controlled Double-blind Study on Children of Holocaust Survivors’, The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38(1), 47+ This study was inspired by the theory of Solkoff that majority of researchers have not employed sufficient methodologies to identify the potential outcomes on the descendants of Holocaust survivors. This study used rigorous methodological processes and standards. 2) Carey, L. (2006). Expressive and Creative Arts Methods for Trauma Survivors. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley. This book provides a comprehensive review and assessment of the past and current tools used for reducing the emotional and psychological trauma of Holocaust survivors and their children. 3) Catherall, D. (2005). Family Stressors: Interventions for Stress and Trauma. New York: Routledge. This book classifies eight unique stressors that are experienced by families and parents. All are stressors outside of the family; stressors within the family such as suicide, domestic abuse, or child abuse are not discussed in this book. Rather, the emphasis is on situations or occurrences that are encountered as coming from a source that is outside the control of the family or parents. 4) Cohen, M., Brom, D. & Dasberg, H. (2001). ‘Child Survivors of the Holocaust: Symptoms and Coping after Fifty Years’, The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38(1), 3+ This study analyses a controlled research of children survivors of the Holocaust. To give an idea of the horrific experiences of these young survivors, this study begins with a comprehensive review of the theoretical and practical context which form the foundation of the research. 5) Hassan, J. (2003). A House Next Door to Trauma: Learning from Holocaust Survivors How to Respond to Atrocity. London: Jessica Kingsley. This book provides a clear illustration of the experiences of the Holocaust survivors and their efforts to rebuild their lives and start their own families. This book is a vivid demonstration of the struggles of the Holocaust survivors and their families. 6) Kellermann, N. (1999). ‘Diagnosis of Holocaust Survivors and their Children’, The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 36(1), 55+ This paper discusses the potential positive and negative outcomes of applying criteria or diagnoses with Holocaust survivors and their descendants. 7) Levav, I., Levinson, D., Radomislensky, I., Shemesh, A. & Kohn, R. (2007). ‘Psychopathology and Other Health Dimensions among the Offspring of Holocaust Survivors: Results from the Israel National Health Survey’, The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 44(2), 144+ In this community research, descendants of survivors of the Holocaust and of parents born in Europe who had not lived in former Nazi countries were involved in a large national study. 8) Mash, E. & Barkley, R. (2003). Child Psychopathology. New York: Guilford Press. This book gives wide-ranging explanations of the definitions, features, developmental stages, causes, environments, correlates, and results of psychopathology in children. 9) Prince, R.M. (1985). The Legacy of the Holocaust: Psychohistorical Themes in the Second Generation. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press. This volume examines that relationships and images of the past that distresses the lives of individuals who are reaching the age their parents were when they experienced the most devastating and terrible experiences of our time. This descriptions are studied in terms of the connections that can be identified between it and the current characteristic and future hopes of the descendants of Holocaust survivor parents. 10) Williams-Keeler, L., McCarrey, M., Baranowsky, A., Young, M. & Johnson-Douglas, S. (1998). ‘PTSD Transmission: A Review of Secondary Traumatisation in Holocaust Survivor Families’, Canadian Psychology, 39(4), 247+ This study tries to prove whether a secondary PTSD syndrome is being passed on across generations. It provides a wide-ranging literature to substantiate this belief. Read More