14/12/2025
childhood traumas and who inherits them?
Your question touches on an extremely complex and important topic. Let's analyze it step by step.
What is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood traumas refer to sudden, often repeated, or particularly traumatic events that occur during childhood and that exceed the child's ability to cope and process them. They can include:
Abuse: Physical, emotional, s*xual.
Neglect: Physical or emotional.
Loss or abandonment: Death of a parent, divorce, hospitalization.
Involvement in family dysfunction: Violence between parents, substance abuse by parents, serious mental illness of a parent.
Major traumatic events: Accidents, natural disasters, war.
The effects can be psychological (anxiety, depression, difficulty regulating emotions, low self-esteem), physical (chronic stress, increased risk for certain diseases) and behavioral (relationship difficulties, tendency for self-destructive behavior).
Who "Inherit" Childhood Trauma?
The term "inheritance" is metaphorical, but we can see it from three different, interconnected aspects:
1. Intergenerational Transmission (Psychological & Behavioral)
This is the most common meaning of "inheritance". It is not genetic, but rather a transmission through patterns of behavior, communication and emotional dynamics.
As victims: A child who grew up with an emotionally absent or intimidating parent may, without appropriate treatment and awareness, reproduce these patterns with his or her own children. He doesn't know any other way to parent or manage conflicts.
As abusers/Defense Mechanisms: The dysfunctional behaviors (e.g., temper tantrums, passive aggression, avoidance) that he learned as an adaptation to the traumatic environment, he may apply to his relationships as an adult, thus indirectly transferring the trauma.
Through the "Narrative": The messages the child received ("you are not worthy," "the world is dangerous," "emotions are weak") may become his inner speech and be passed on to future generations.
2. Epigenetic Inheritance
Here we are talking about a biological mechanism. Epigenetics examines how experience and environment affect the expression of our genes, without changing the DNA.
Through Stress: Chronic, toxic stress from abuse or neglect can cause epigenetic changes in genes related to stress response, immune system, and brain function.
Maternal Transmission: A pregnant woman who experiences severe stress or has dealt with unresolved childhood trauma can, through hormones and other factors, affect the developing fetus. These epigenetic “signatures” can be passed on to the next generation, making children more sensitive to stress or more prone to certain psychiatric disorders. It is not absolute fate, but a vulnerability factor.
3. Legacy of the Family and Social System
Trauma lives not only in the individual, but also in the family and social system.
Family Secrets and Silence: "What happens at home, stays at home" transmits a culture of silence and shame.
Dysfunctional Family Rules: Rules such as "don't express anger", "don't trust strangers", "you always have to be perfect" become norms that are passed down from generation to generation.
Socio-economic Factors: Poverty, social isolation, war or collective violence (e.g. genocides) are traumas that are inherited by entire societies, affecting subsequent generations through narratives, fears and collective memory.
Conclusion: A Multidimensional Legacy
Childhood traumas are not "inherited" like a simple characteristic (e.g. eye color). They are inherited as a complex:
Through learning and adaptive behaviors that are passed down through the family (psychological transmission).
Through biological changes that affect the response to stress and can be passed on to future generations (epigenetics).
Through family and social systems that perpetuate dysfunctional norms and secrets.
The crucial explanation: This inheritance is not fatal. Awareness, psychotherapy, and therapeutic relationships can break this cycle. Recognizing the trauma and working through it allows a person to move from a state of "survival" to a state of "well-being" and not pass on the same patterns to their children. Resilience can also be inherited.