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Chapter 13: The Transgenerational Impact of Anti-Semitism

DOI:

10.1891/9780826163424.0013

Authors

  • Alter-Reid, Karen
  • Heber, Ruth

Abstract

This chapter discusses the need for the clinician to acquaint themselves with the patient’s culture, mores, lore, and metaphors so as to understand the patient within a meaningful context. It describes that successful treatment includes both reprocessing of trauma and the reconstruction of a coherent, meaningful life narrative. Damaged self-esteem, identity, and alienation in second-generation offspring of survivors of anti-Semitic atrocities, such as European pogroms and the Holocaust, can be addressed with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment. The EMDR trauma therapist working with one or multiple generations of genocides needs to be familiar with the impact of mass genocide on the psyche, the impact of internalized oppression, and the factors that continue to impact upon offspring’s identity formation. The chapter reviews the clinical example which describes the treatment of a second-generation patient whose family survived Ukrainian pogroms, World War II, rampant anti-Semitic atrocities, and immigration-related trauma.