Experiencing Traumatic War Events: Multigenerational Family Patterns Affecting Coping Strategies

The multigenerational approach extends our understanding beyond the here and now to ways in which family relationship patterns may pass down from generation to generation and influence the behavior of family members in the present. The emphasis is on how families deal with acute or chronic anxiety over generations – either that which stems from over-proximity or that which stems from excessive distance – through the creation of disconnects, emotional projections, and emotional triangles. Awareness of these intergenerational transmissions can help patients change their behavior, free themselves from habits and relationship patterns that imprison them and increase their personal and interpersonal differentiation. Following the events of October 7th in Israel, many families experienced difficult and unusual events such as: being in the shelter for days waiting to be rescued, reading frightening messages screaming for help, children and adults defecating and vomiting in the shelter, watching the murder through the window or hearing "help" sounds near you, having family members murdered or kidnapped, or friends that were kidnapped or murdered. In this presentation we will discuss how concepts of the multigenerational approach are related to the functioning of individuals and families who experience traumatic events during war. The concepts to be discussed are: Differentiation of the self, emotional triangles, the emotional system of the nuclear family, projection processes in the family, processes of intergenerational transfer, emotional disconnection, the order of siblings in the family, and emotional processes in society. The examples in this presentation are from the Israeli context, while being aware of the great suffering of Palestinian families as well.