THE TRANSMISSION OF TRAUMA - UNCONSCIOUS FANTASY, AND ITS ACTIVATION BY EXTERNAL REALITY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HOLOCAUST

The Transmission of Trauma: Unconscious Fantasy, and its Activation by External Reality, with special reference to the Holocaust. - Herzog s ees trauma as the incursion of certain kinds of hyper- and hypo-stimul ation on the child or adult, interrupting the capacity for play (play as the creative acquisition of reality) and occasioning a change in th e mode of play. The upshot is interactive acting-out in the relationsh ip, in which the pre-programmed participation of the partner is essent ial. The author draws upon the case history of a man of the ''second g eneration'' to demonstrate how failure on the part of the parents to w ork through a trauma of their own meant that it was passed on to the s on and his relationship to his wife. The return of the parents' trauma manifested itself most clearly in the necessity felt by the son to or ganise his own sexuality in a particular way.