Dreaming the memories of our parents: Understanding neurobiology of transgenerational trauma and the capacities for its healing

Abstract

Selma Freiberg once said that “trauma demands repetition”. What if actual trauma did not happen in real life of one particular person, but he/she feels that it was real, as it is repeated every night – in every dream? Do children and grandchildren of survivors of holocaust and of the pogroms dream the memories of their parents and grandparents? Does their imagination “make them up” or do they have a transgenerational connection to the traumatic past of their parents and grandparents, even if they were protected from knowing and hearing the horrors of what actually happened to their loved ones sometime one or two generations apart? Are these people born with some specific biological markers (e.g., lower cortisol levels)? Can fear be passed along from parents to children by smell? All these questions can be answered positively (see work of Jacek Debiec, Dias and Ressler, and many others), and can be explained on the level of neurobiology and epigenetics (thanks to contributions of Moshe Szyf and Michael Meaney from McGill University, and others). This presentation will offer some neuro-psychoeducational reflections on the topic of transgenerational trauma, its epigenetic transmission and its neuro-psycho-biological constructs, as well as a very personal touch, a personal story of growing up in a very nurturing and cultured, but very small family, and not knowing of the circumstances of “why small?”

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.