Transgenerational Trauma

“In this timely volume, Salberg and Grand expand the intellectual and moral frame of witnessing professionals to encompass transgenerational trauma in many cultures throughout the world. As they encourage us to face our own histories, including our own internalized perpetrators, they maintain our hope for a better world.”

Judith L. Herman, M.D., author of Trauma and Repair and Trauma and Recovery

“Salberg and Grand trace the psychical transformations of trauma theory from historical, antecedent and embryonic versions to mature conceptual renditions of ideas in this relatively new domain of psychoanalytic inquiry. The result is a rich account that lends itself to the teaching of psychoanalytic concepts and to clinical practices where narratives of generational trauma show themselves. The authors’ consistently lucid clinical narratives, in particular, display phenomena that are engaging, powerful, and, above all, demonstrate why this new domain deserves every attention it now commands.”

Maurice Apprey, PhD, DM, FIPA, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia School of Medicine, and Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Contemporary Freudian Society

“In their important new book, Jill Salberg and Sue Grand deepen our understanding of the transgenerational legacies of trauma by taking us beyond the binary of victim and perpetrator. Full of rich and evocative examples, Grand and Salberg demonstrate what it means to recognize and disclose the traumas that reside within us. They address descendants of victims and perpetrators alike, and show us how to hold the complexity of these positions, rather than side with one over the other. Our conversation will become much richer as a result. Transgenerational Trauma: A Contemporary Introduction is a significant contribution and essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding how today’s crisis-ridden world has been shaped by legacies of trauma.”

Roger Frie, Professor of Education, Simon Fraser University

“In their book, Transgenerational Trauma: A Contemporary Introduction, Jill Salberg and Sue Grand move beyond the classical silence of the analyst, towards the empathic dialogic internal listening and witnessing that is essential to relieve psychic pain. Grounded in relational and attachment theory, they offer a historical and theoretical journey through our field’s transgenerational resistances to exploring trauma as a dynamic and analytic entity. Salberg and Grand share their and other clinicians’ narratives with poignancy and nuance, capturing the affective resonance and necessary engagement that transforms both members of the analytic couple. Created as a teaching series, it does that and much more.”

Dionne R. Powell, author of From the Sunken Place to the Shitty Place: The Film GetOut, Psychic Emancipation and Modern Race Relations from a Psychodynamic Clinical Perspective (Psychoanal. Q.), Co-Chair of the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis

"No topic is more urgent and timely in contemporary psychoanalysis than the transgenerational transmission of trauma. In this volume, two leading lights, Jill Salberg and Sue Grand, provide a scholarly yet readable overview of the breadth and depth of the field. The theoretical chapters are interspersed with moving personal testimonials. While attentive to the legacies of perpetrators as well as victims, the authors never lose sight of the beacon of social justice that guides them in their clinical odysseys.”

Peter L. Rudnytsky, Head, Department of Academic and Professional Affairs, American Psychoanalytic Association, and author of Mutual Analysis: Ferenczi, Severn, and the Origins of Trauma Theory