Historical Trauma Families
Historical Trauma is the collective emotional and psychological injury both over the life span and across generations, resulting from a cataclysmic history of genocide. Historical Unresolved Grief is grief resulting from the historical trauma of genocide, grief that has not been expressed, acknowledged and resolved. Like trauma, it can span across generations.
Many cultures have experienced massive losses of lives, land, and culture from different people resulting in a long legacy of chronic trauma and unresolved grief across generations. This phenomenon, called historical unresolved grief, contributes to current social pathology of high rates of suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcoholism and other social problems among different races.
Traumas are frightening, often dangerous, and/or violent events or conditions that are experienced as overwhelming to a family and/or any or all its individual members. These experiences can include breaches in the protective shield or social contract that diminish a family’s sense of safety and support. Each member of the family may experience trauma differently but each individual family member’s adaptation is linked to the reactions and responses of the others.
Historical trauma can be affect different people such as Europeans taking over the land from the Native Americans, the Jews and World War II, or even African Americans with slavery. The people who were involved with these events most likely suffered from PTSD. This affects their personality which can cause problems such as anger, depression which can take over someone’s life.
Trauma changes families as they work to survive and adapt to their circumstances and environment. Research demonstrates that trauma has a range of impacts on individual family members, their relationships with each other, and overall family functioning. Trauma impacts relationships by interfering with communication. It causes individuals to “shut-down” with others. As with
Many cultures have experienced massive losses of lives, land, and culture from different people resulting in a long legacy of chronic trauma and unresolved grief across generations. This phenomenon, called historical unresolved grief, contributes to current social pathology of high rates of suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcoholism and other social problems among different races.
Traumas are frightening, often dangerous, and/or violent events or conditions that are experienced as overwhelming to a family and/or any or all its individual members. These experiences can include breaches in the protective shield or social contract that diminish a family’s sense of safety and support. Each member of the family may experience trauma differently but each individual family member’s adaptation is linked to the reactions and responses of the others.
Historical trauma can be affect different people such as Europeans taking over the land from the Native Americans, the Jews and World War II, or even African Americans with slavery. The people who were involved with these events most likely suffered from PTSD. This affects their personality which can cause problems such as anger, depression which can take over someone’s life.
Trauma changes families as they work to survive and adapt to their circumstances and environment. Research demonstrates that trauma has a range of impacts on individual family members, their relationships with each other, and overall family functioning. Trauma impacts relationships by interfering with communication. It causes individuals to “shut-down” with others. As with