epigenetics and intergenerational trauma

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Genetic approaches to understanding post-traumatic stress disorder. This evidence not only supports the essential role psychoanalysis has in influencing human behavior, but also suggests that it affects not only the individuals who undergo it but their offspring, as well, via the epigenetic passage of DNA.Īlmli, L. In particular, DNA changes caused by psychological trauma can be transmitted from generation to generation, validating the psychoanalytic concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma. The present paper focuses on recent research suggesting a direct correlation between psychological trauma and DNA modifications. Therefore, psychoanalysis, which has proven to reduce the intergenerational transmission of trauma from a behavioral perspective, can play a positive role in regulating DNA changes caused by environmental stress.

While it is known that intergenerational trauma can be transmitted through attachment relationships, a new branch of genetics (epigenetics) has emerged to study the interaction between human behavior and changes in DNA expression. The concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma plays a fundamental role in psychoanalysis.

Epigenetics and intergenerational trauma