“Enactment” in the Lives and Treatment of Holocaust Survivors’ Offspring

Abstract

This paper explores an aspect of "enactment" often seen in Holocaust survivors' offspring: the compulsion to re-create their parents' experiences in their own lives through concrete acts. At the core of this compulsion is a psychic hole, a gap in the child's emotional understanding, stemming from identification with the parents on one hand, and the parents' denial or repression of the trauma on the other. The compulsion to enact can be transformed into a cognitive mode when such offspring are helped to find the meaning of the trauma in their parents' lives, as is illustrated here by clinical examples.

Increased rate of depression and psychosomatic symptoms in Jewish migrants from the post-Soviet-Union to Germany in the 3rd generation after the Shoa

“…2 In the context of the children-of-survivors-complex, Levine 1 describes parental rearing behavior like overprotection and interference with infantile individuation. Moreover, Levine 1 states a lack of knowledge of children concerning their parent's experiences of the Holocaust and identification with parental characteristic features.…”

“…Kogan 2 illustrates coherences mainly influenced by parental activity. Parents tend to unconsciously force their children into roles and constellations that are traumatizing.…”

“…In the present study, we therefore examined the question whether familial experiences of the Shoa, 1, 2 emigration 3, 4, 5 and social exclusion 6 among Jewish migrants from the post-Soviet-Union areas, with special regard to multiple accumulative traumatization and retraumatization 7 coincide with specific alterations of the mental health status.…”

“…3, 4, 5 For example, Russian-speaking immigrants with German family background have been reported to have a higher prevalence of psychosomatic disorders 13 and an increased anxiety-score has been found in Jewish migrants to Germany. 8 Holocaust and its familial aftermath : Several authors associate Jewish experiences of the Holocaust and their passing on within the family with increased psychosomatic susceptibility 1, 2, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 In this context, the assumptions of Levine 1 and Kogan 2 reporting overprotective parental rearing behavior as a potential obstacle for the development of the children's identity are of special importance for this study. Anti-Semitism as a factor of social exclusion : Recent studies showed an increase of anti-Semitism in Germany. 19, 20 Social exclusion is regarded as a determinant for several health problems, in particular cardiovascular diseases (ICD-9 390–459).…”

“…Holocaust and its familial aftermath : Several authors associate Jewish experiences of the Holocaust and their passing on within the family with increased psychosomatic susceptibility 1, 2, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 In this context, the assumptions of Levine 1 and Kogan 2 reporting overprotective parental rearing behavior as a potential obstacle for the development of the children's identity are of special importance for this study.…”