‘If I leave home, who will take care of mum?’ Intergenerational transmission of parental trauma through projective identification

ABSTRACT

Using the construct of projective identification and integrating it with the body of literature on intergenerational transmission of unsymbolized parental trauma, I describe the case of an adult daughter that illustrates intergenerational transmission of unsymbolized parental trauma. It is suggested that the daughter has unconsciously identified with the disavowed feelings of anxiety projected into her by her mother. The daughter’s projective identification of her mother’s unresolved past traumas prevent her from leaving the parental home for the first time, despite being 35 years old. In turn, it is thought that the mother’s unconscious grasping onto her daughter is an attempt to avoid the confrontation of her own unprocessed fears implanted into her by her own mother, thus linking three generations of disavowal. As a way of extending the exiting theory, it is proposed that when there are long-term and inexplicable experiences of anxiety that coalesces around the intergenerational transmission of parental trauma, the term ‘intergenerational transmission of traumatic anxiety’ can be used to describe it.

KEYWORDS:

• Projective identification
• intergenerational transmission of trauma
• alien transplant
• encrypted identities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Some authors have pointed towards differences between projection and projective identification. Ogden (1979) and Meissner (1980) make distinctions between the two, and view projection as an intrapsychic phenomenon, similar to Klein, and the latter as an interpersonal one. Grotstein (1981) assert both are identical and makes no distinction (vide Muhlegg, 2016).

2. All identifying data related to the client known as Celine have been disguised. In some places, aspects of other thematically similar cases have been inserted so as to further camouflage any identifying details.

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Notes on contributors

Zelda G. Knight

Professor Zelda G. Knight (PhD) obtained her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in psychology from Rhodes University in South Africa. She is an experienced practising psychologist and psychotherapist as well as a seasoned Professor of Psychology at the University of Johannesburg. Her main approach to psychotherapy is psychoanalytic with a slant towards relational psychoanalysis and psychodynamic. She has been lecturing and training student clinical and counselling psychologists in the art of psychotherapy for more than two decades, and has recently edited two books on psychoanalysis. As a practitioner-scientist, she has amassed a substantial publication record with research published in reputable international journals and academic books. She has presented numerous scientific papers at conferences worldwide, and is currently the Vice-President of the World Council for Psychotherapy (WCP) (African Chapter).