EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE

Chronicles of psychiatric trauma passed down through generations.

Although no longer the mainstream, Freudian theory is alive and well, and psychoanalyst Atlas, the author of three books for clinicians, assembles a dozen stories of patients and their families, with asides into her own life experiences and a touch of contemporary neuroscience. Perhaps Freud’s greatest accomplishment was killing the idea that what we don’t remember won’t hurt us. “Starting in the 1970s,” writes the author “neuroscience validated the psychoanalytic findings that survivors’ trauma—even the darkest secrets they never talked about—had a real effect on their children’s and grandchildren’s lives.” Researchers “analyze how genes are altered in the descendants of trauma survivors and study the ways in which the environment, and especially trauma, can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes that is passed down to the next generation.” From an evolutionary perspective, inheriting an affliction that they didn’t experience firsthand might prepare children for an environment similar to that of their parents, but the reality is that they often experience only the pain. In one case, a patient’s sister was killed when the brother was only an infant. Eventually, he began to realize that he was emotionally crippled because he “never had anything to begin with.” Another patient, preoccupied with death, obsessively researches newspaper obituaries. He also “always imagined I had a twin brother who died at birth.” Readers familiar with modern psychiatric diagnoses must make allowances. This is unapologetic Freudian psychoanalysis: accounts of disturbed individuals from dysfunctional families cured after delving into their childhood experiences reveals forgotten or deliberately suppressed traumas. Dreams contain deeply significant revelations, and words and actions that seem bizarre make perfect sense once the therapist and patient tease out their meanings. Those suffering from similar traumatic circumstances will receive a helpful education.

Appealing traditional Freudian case histories.