Splitting In Trans-generational Transmission Of Trauma

The consequences of traumatic events are not limited to the persons immediately exposed to the event, and they often affect their offspring, which is called the trans-generational transmission of trauma. In a system such as a family, what is trauma and how it develops can be learned from the way how the family members dealt with the traumatic events they encountered, and how the process of trans-generational transmission of trauma proceeded. After that, take the trauma of the Culture Revolution in China, this research aims to explore the way how a man becomes an individual.Specifically, guided by the grounded theory, this research intended to figure out the basic social psychological process behind the trans-generational transmission of trauma, and fucous on the conceptualization of latent behavior pattern. Furthermore, with the perspective of both objective and subjective, the research participators and the researcher are included in the research together. More clearly, interview with three members of the same family (one for each generation) which suffered from the trauma of the Culture Revolution. Tow times in total within ten months, and each time for1.5to3hours for each person. The interview includes the three parts:the traumatic events, feelings about the traumatic events, the trans-generational effects of the traumatic events. All interviews are conducted in the case of without interference. In order to be more real and neutral, the research supervision is in company with the research, meanwhile.During the analysis, the theme of "splitting" emerged frequently. Firstly, used as a noun,"splitting" is the main consequence of trauma. Gl, G2and G3show the different forms of splitting separately, and go forward to the integration in their own way. Secondly, as a verb,"splitting" describes the way of the transmission of trauma within different generations. In detail, different generations or different members of the same generation are charged with different tasks. Namely, the work of recovering from the trauma is divided into different parts. Thirdly,"splitting" is the main character of the process of the trans-generational transmission of trauma as a adjective. It can be well illustrated by the phenomenon of Grandparental Love (the affective relationship between grandparents and grandson is nearer than that of parents and son) and the dual purpose of the trans-generational transmission. All in a word, trauma is transmitted within generations via splitting. Splitting is the main content, the main way, and also the main character of the process of the trans-generational transmission of trauma. As the result of the comparative literature review, as the general organizing principle in psychic development and functioning, it includes the splitting (off) of psychic groupings, the splitting (up) of representations and the splitting (within) of the attitudes of ego. Those three forms of splitting proceed within the inner world of individual as significant stages of development. The forth kind of splitting, the splitting of awareness, includes those four parts: cogito, self-reflection, reflection through the other, reflection via the text. It breakthroughs the boundary of oneself and comes to the relationship of "Ⅰ and me","Ⅰ and YOU","Ⅰ and IT". Furthermore, through the four stages of the splitting of awareness, the subject of the research combines the process of the research into the process of the "reflection on the splitting", namely the process of the "individualization of Ⅰ". In a word, reflection on the splitting is the basic form of individual development.Finally, conclusions are made as follows:first, Splitting is the main content, the main way, and also the main character of the process of the trans-generational transmission of trauma. Specifically, trauma events bring the motivation of splitting, the movement of splitting then opens the space in which different forms of splitting proceed, resulting the fate of the ups and downs of the age, family and individual. Second, the process of reflection on splitting is the way to heal the trauma. To put it more clearly, via trauma events,"Ⅰ" exist; via awareness,"Ⅰ" become dependent; via the other,"Ⅰ" am enriched; via the text,"Ⅰ" am formed. All in all, trauma is transmitted via splitting, and healed by the reflection on splitting.