A Study on Historical/Social Traumas and the Forms of Intergenerational Transmission

Historical/social traumas such as war, migration, natural disasters and genocide have multidimensional devastating effects on the survivors. However, subsequent generations also absorb the experiences of their parents in different ways, even if they were not directly exposed to trauma, and their stress-response systems may become vulnerable. This situation, which indicates the contagious nature of social traumas, is expressed in the concepts such as “secondary traumatization” or “intergenerational transmission of trauma”. In the past two decades, there have been an increasing interest in, and modelling studies on the forms of intergenerational transmission of trauma. Scientific studies reveal that, despite some disadvantages of the retrospective method, social/historical traumas continue to affect subsequent generations through psychodynamic, environmental, cultural and epigenetic mechanisms. It is stated that intra-family communication patterns play an important role especially in the processes of trauma transmission and the generation effect may be experienced more heavily in the families who failed to achieve posttraumatic growth. This review article, discussing intergenerational transmission of trauma, aims to create a perspective on the phenomenon by reviewing the literature on the forms of intergenerational transmission of trauma and concordantly, to contribute to a better understanding of the cost of social traumas.