Collective trauma is the subject of the novel The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford, which I’m currently reading. It’s a new idea to me, but it has got me thinking. Psychology Today states that:

Collective trauma, also known as historical or racial trauma, is the idea that generations of trauma experienced by a large group of people—such as slavery, institutional racism, or colonial exploitation—can broadly influence descendants. This shared experience, the theory suggests, makes members of future generations more prone to conditions like anxiety, depression, or insomnia.

Some psychologists suggest that living through a historical trauma or being raised by someone who did, heightens an individual’s fight-flight-or-freeze response, leading them to rush into that mode of heightened stress at what others might experience as relatively low-threat situations. 

COLLECTIVE TRAUMA IDEA

Modern research suggests the trauma our ancestors experienced can be passed down through the generations.  

Epigenetics is a scientific field that investigates how our environment influences our genes, altering not our DNA sequence but how it’s read and utilized. The field is relatively new, being identified in the 1940s. Here’s a detailed look at epigenetics.

While your DNA doesn’t change, the idea is that it’s a library. Environmental factors like diet, stress, or support act like librarians, dictating which book (DNA) is open and read. Not all books are read; some are good for your health, while others are bad. This affects our mood, health, and how we react to stimuli.

The bad news is that if we have generational stress, our bodies read the stress book. On the other hand, we can work through these issues and pick a stress-free book. The book choice is ours.

COLLECTIVE TRAUMA SKEPTICS

Rest assured that the field has many skeptics. An environmental epidemiologist at the University of Southern California completed a review of studies of epigenetic inheritance in humans and other animals commented that “when we talk about environmental exposure causing an epigenetic change that might affect health risk, and whether that individual effect can persist, I do think there is mounting evidence in support of this.” Even if it happens only rarely, she adds, “all it takes is an environmental exposure to tweak a handful of loci in the system that might still be bad for you, and that effect might be carried forward.”

COLLECTIVE TRAUMA AND ME

Hmmm. Are my anxiety and depression linked to the trauma my parents experienced? Since I began working on the trilogy Family Threads, tracing my mother’s side of the family from 1630 to 1936, I’ve thought a lot about what my parents experienced as teens and young adults. Both came of age during the Great Depression. My mother’s family was well-off, but their rural home in Guntersville, Alabama, was flooded by the Tennessee River Authority, and they moved to Tennessee. Then, World War II erupted.

My father’s father died when he was a teen, and his mother had a suicide attempt and a stint at the State Mental Hospital. After graduating from college, he was drafted. He never talked much about the war, but when he was delirious in the hospital, he apparently raved about the horrors. I do know that he was very sheltered as a child and was shocked by the guy talk, had his feet frozen in Europe, woke up to find an unexploded hand grenade outside of his foxhole, brought home a German luger he took off a dead soldier, and, as a lieutenant, got into an argument with a subordinate about who would shoot an escaping German soldier. Neither did.

I wish they were alive so I could learn more about their experiences growing up.

I am certain, however, that my propensity to be cheap comes from them, as I learned as a child to squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, save things for later reuse, and save a lot of money. I am pleased (I think) to report that this inherited trait has been broken by one of my grandsons and a daughter.

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