The Inheritance of Loss: Examining the Psychological and Emotional Effects of Descendants in Post-Trauma Societies

Abstract

Descendants often experience emotional and psychological effects stemming from their ancestor’s trauma in post-traumatic societies. It can cause them depression, anxiety, complexity in forming behaviour and healthy relationships, and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Intergenerational trauma is recognized as main emotional and psychological effect transmitted to descendants; that is, trauma faced by one generation can have a lasting impact on descendants. It is crucial to learn about the effects of trauma on future generations because trauma can affect the physical and mental health and the complete well-being of following generations and cause cycles of emotional grief and unhealthy behaviour. Through the inheritance of loss, this research examines how the emotional and psychological legacies of suffering, like genocide, political violence, and war, are transmitted to future generations. This study aims to describe the emotional and psychological impacts of descendants who have come from survivor backgrounds and live in post-traumatic societies. It explores the prevalence of trauma and PTSD in countries with its trauma type. This paper also discussed the models and prevention of intergenerational trauma transmission and PTSD symptoms and the experiences of three generations with transgenerational transposon trauma. As a result, PTSD has a high impact on the descendants of survivors, and it has a high opportunity for future studies to identify the prevention of PTSD, transgenerational trauma transmission, and intergenerational transmission of trauma.