Trauma’s Haunting Legacy: Is Repair Possible

This essay is Dr. Salberg's attempt to address brokenness and reparability within psychoanalytic theory and clinical work, and the impact of serious trauma and its transmission on succeeding generations. The concept of transgenerational transmission of trauma suggests that the original injuries are of a magnitude and kind of human betrayal that lives on not only in the original victim but in generations to come who have not directly experienced it. These transmissions reveal an essential aspect of what is irreparable and the struggle we have in psychoanalysis in response. Dr. Salberg queries our theories, and the role of repair and cure has played and whether newer ways of understanding traumatic impact suggest different goals. A clinical case is discussed reflecting traumatic transgenerational transmissions and ways to understand, witness and work with the impact on the second generation. Considering our unremitting succession of wars and as we ignore the legacies of colonialism, hatreds of others (racism, sexism, homophobia, and virulent anti-trans) and the climate emergency, Dr. Salberg believes we need to consider: What are the limitations in our theories of mind? What can therapeutic action realistically accomplish, and can we repair violated trust, all betrayals, and traumas that our patients have endured? Does repair need to be reconceived?