Children of Social Trauma : Hungarian Psychoanalytic Case Studies

The author has pioneered individual and group therapy with Holocaust survivors and their descendants, identified as the `Holocaust syndrome', in the grandchildren of socially traumatized individuals. The book explores the use of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in work with the psychological effects of social trauma on succeeding generations.

Observing the ways in which a large group of people may experience collective trauma, which can have identifiable effects in succeeding generations, Terez Virag has pioneered individual and group therapy with Holocaust survivors and their descendants in Hungary. She was the first to identify `Holocaust syndrome'' in the grandchildren of socially traumatized individuals, and in this book explores the use of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in work with the psychological effects of social trauma on succeeding generations. Children of Social Trauma describes case studies of work with three generations of Holocaust survivors'' families in Hungary, where seventy-five per cent of the Jewish population, a total of 600,000 people, were killed in the Holocaust. The case studies present a unique psychological profile of the group of patients, since they or their parents and grandparents returned to Hungary after deportation, whereas many survivors lived in a new country after the war. Examining concepts of identity and society, and large groups and aggression, Terez Virag develops the unique contribution of the Budapest School to psychoanalysis and therapy for the populations of people who have suffered social trauma.