'As we were forming as humans, our brains were thinking: 'How do we stay safe? How do we feed ourselves? How do we just survive?' We're still primed in that way, so if some people have had trauma in their family history, they might always be looking around to check if they have enough people around them to help them survive,' he said. You need to be around people all the timeĬonversely, the need to be around people all the time could be an inherited need to feel safe in a group, Hammond said.

This can manifest as trust issues in romantic relationships if you've learned from your family to be suspicious of those looking after you, because romantic feelings are similar to those that babies have in relation to their carers, Hammond said. Since then, the term has been used to describe inherited trauma from enslaved people, including African Americans, as well as wars and natural disasters. The concept of intergenerational trauma was first described in the context of the children of Holocaust victims after Canadian psychiatrists noticed they were overrepresented in referrals to psychiatry clinics in the mid-sixties, two decades after the end of World War II. Intergenerational trauma is also thought to have what is known as an epigenetic component, where past generations' experiences affect how certain genes are expressed in their children and grandchildren, with more research needed to confirm this. A person's environment or circumstance may lead them to behave in a certain way, which their child may mirror, with the cycle continuing for generations, he said. Intergenerational trauma, also known as multigenerational, transgenerational, or historical trauma, is where the effects of events experienced by a person's parents, grandparents, and ancestors are passed down through the repetition of behaviors and relationship dynamics, Hendrix Hammond, a psychotherapist based in London, told Business Insider. You're probably aware that your parents help shape who you are, but that effect runs deeper for those experiencing what is known as intergenerational trauma. Focusing this study on third generation survivors expands scientific knowledge regarding transmission of trauma and provides direction to clinical social workers treating individuals who may have a history of intergenerational trauma.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. Findings indicate that rather than ruminating on the pain of their ancestors, focusing attention on their strength may result in the ability to move past the pathological symptoms. The third generation appears to be reconstructing their grandparents’ history, resurfacing their legacy, and in doing so they are realizing the strength and heroic battles their grandparents fought in order to get to the place they are today.

Previous research points to the transmission of pathologic symptoms this study strongly suggests that among third generation survivors, pride, strength, and gratitude are as much a part of the legacy as the negative effects of the experience. The questionnaire was administered to a purposive sample of (N=30) of third generation survivors through REDCap, an online survey database. The questions emerged from the literature as well as the search for perceptions and meanings and utilized Vikor Frankl’s existential theory. This study explored the impact the Holocaust had on third generation survivors through administering an eight item semi-structured questionnaire called, The Third Generation Questionnaire, which was created for the purpose of this study. Despite the significant amount of research that has been done on Holocaust survivors and their offspring, little has been investigated about when, why and how surviving generations begin to move past pathological symptoms. Since that time, researchers have found that the Holocaust has had a psychological, social, and cultural effect on first and second generation survivors.

Over sixty-five years ago the Jewish people were liberated from Nazi Europe.

Holocaust intergenerational trauma