Phenomenology and Psychobiology of the Intergenerational Response to Trauma

The literature describing the effects of the Holocaust on offspring of survivors has developed in a parallel fashion to the literature describing the effects of the Holocaust on its survivors. Early descriptions of the “Survivor Syndrome” arose as clinicians began to realize that classical psychoanalytic views of depression, mourning, and responses to trauma did not provide an adequate framework for understanding and treating Holocaust survivors. The classic observations describing severe symptomatology, maladjustment, and impairment of functioning were made on treatment-seeking individuals, many of whom were being evaluated for compensation or reparations, who did not benefit from psychoanalytic therapy (e.g., Chodoff, 1963; Eitinger, 1961; Krystal, 1968; Neiderland, 1969).