In part 4 of There There, we might say the violence at powwow represents the accumulation of generational trauma and wounds. and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be passed down through generations … A study examining the DNA of Holocaust survivors and their children found similar variations from the norm in both generations for the gene … But, dear heart, see the work you have already done. Some of the violence seems to lead to reconciliation and peace. The next generation must grapple with the trauma, find ways of representing it and spare transmitting the experience of hell back to one's parents. There is certainly evidence that there is a genetic predisposition to addiction. In Australia, intergenerational trauma predominantly affects the children, grandchildren and future generations of the Stolen Generations. I see the path your weary hands forge into new territory. Stolen Generations survivors might also pass on the impacts of institutionalisation, finding it difficult to know how to nurture their children because they were denied the opportunity to be nurtured themselves. I see the struggle inside this wilderness of change—the resistance … There is an old family therapy saying, “It takes three generations to heal.” The first generation inflicts the trauma, the next generation gets into recovery, and hopefully the third generation is spared. The theme of generational trauma and wounds plays out in part 4 of There There through both family relationships and Native American identity. Dear heart, I see you. “By no means is it saying that whenever there’s trauma, that means it’s going to be transmitted,” Dora Costa, the lead author of the Civil War study and an economist at UCLA, told me. The idea is that trauma can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes, which then is passed down to subsequent generations. Behaviour can be affected by events in previous generations which have been passed on through a form of genetic memory, animal studies suggest. I know there is nothing easy about breaking generational cycles. It moves from infliction to healing to release The mark doesn’t directly damage the gene; there… Intergenerational transmission of trauma may be understood as the ongoing impact of traumatic events and situations that happened in prior generations and continues to impact the current generation. In layman's terms, she is researching how serious incidents of trauma (i.e. This is what family therapy calls multi-generational projection. slavery, holocaust, etc.)