By Laura Newberry, Illustration: Patrick Hruby, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2023
Woven throughout most of this newsletter is the understanding that our past informs our present. It shows up in the choices we make, our relationships, our work. No corner of our lives goes untouched by the shadows of our former selves.
The concept that personal history plays a key role in our psychology has been formally recognized since the days of Freud. A younger, burgeoning field of study is now examining the painful imprints of lifetimes before our own — those of our parents, our grandparents, and on.
A Group Therapy reader sent us her thoughts, and a question, about intergenerational trauma:
Because I work with young people, I’m often reflecting on my own childhood experiences, complete with the memories of trauma I’ve brought with me into adulthood. At each new stage of aging, I come to understand my past — and past versions of me — so much better! But I also become more aware of how there’s more to unpack that I may never understand — high on that list is intergenerational trauma. I see glimpses of what my mom experienced herself and passed along, but I’m sure there’s more under the surface I’m oblivious to. And then there’s the matter of my deceased father and more extended branches of my family and ancestry who I’m not in connection with and/or will never be able to tap into directly.
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