Natan Kellermann

Overview of book "Shh...it Happens: So What?"

Shh...it Happens: So What? is a raw, honest, and psychologically rich exploration of how we come to terms with life’s hardships. Drawing from existential psychology, personal reflection, and contemporary thought, it challenges the conventional ‘recovery’ narrative, offering instead an approach rooted in acceptance, contemplation, and meaning-making...

After some brief remarks on the ambiguous terminology in trauma transmission studies, conceptual issues within different kinds of transmission are discussed. These issues include parental diversity factors, offspring diversity factors, environmental diversity factors, critical times of transmission, and the process of transmission.

Despite “the era of the brain,” the mind is still kicking. Here are some thoughts allowing neuroscience to inform your work with clients.

The coronavirus pandemic is attacking humankind all over the world. It has already killed over a million people. We seem to be powerless against it and many suffer from collective trauma. What are we up against? What’s going on inside the mind of this small, but lethal, chemical structure? Does he have a conscious or an unconscious agenda? Who doe...

This is a description of an imaginary psychotherapeutic journey with COVID-19, during the 2020 pandemic in which the virus searched for his real identity, and for his genuine "self."

For many years, transgenerational transmission of trauma used to be explained with learning theories or in psychoanalytic terms as “radioactive identification.” At that time, nobody believed that a trauma of a parent could also leave physical “scars” on the child. During the last decade, however, significant progress in neuroscience has begun to un...

For almost seventy years, observational and empirical data have been collected on a unique population at risk because of their parents' wartime experiences, resulting in extensive and sometimes confusing findings on the intergenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma in survivor families. This paper presents a critical overview of past research,...

Despite significant progress in basic neuroscience research of stress and PTSD, no definite biological pathways of traumatization have been identified. As a result, the biological part of transgenerational transmission of Holocaust traumatization (HT) cannot be verified. Why has it been so difficult to find biomarkers of HT? The present paper tries...

Abstract Transgenerational transmission of trauma (TTT) renders some children of survivors vulnerable to stress while others become more resilient. TTT was previously assumed to be caused primarily by environmental factors, such as the parents’ child-rearing behavior. Recent research findings, reviewed in this paper, suggest that it may also be inh...

the Holocaust left its visible and invisible marks not only on the survivors, but also on their children. Instead of numbers tattooed on their forearms, however, they may have been marked epigenetically with a chemical coating upon their chromosomes, which would represent a kind of biological memory of what the parents experienced. as a result, som...

The language used in the collective identification of formerly persecuted Jews turned out to become a source for great controversy and much disagreement over the entire post-war period. Common designations, such as remnants, refugees, ghetto fighters, former camp inmates, Nazi victims, Holocaust survivors, and witnesses of World War II, were used i...

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the long-term psychological effects of Holocaust trauma. It covers not only the direct effects on the actual survivors and the transmission upon the offspring, but also the collective effects upon other affected populations, including the Israeli Jewish and the societies in Germany and Austria.

For children of Holocaust survivors, the trauma of their parents can be perceived both as a curse and as a legacy. On the one hand, it may fill their inner lives with terrible anxiety-provoking associations; on the other, it may be a source of creative inspiration that motivates them to make the world a better place. As a result, most of them strug...

This book examines the psychological and social damage of trauma to society as a whole and suggests practical ways of facilitating the rehabilitation of survivors of collective trauma through sociodrama and related group work.

The present paper gives an overview of the long-term psychological effects of Holocaust traumatization on survivors and their offspring and suggests possible treatment strategies for these client populations. Based on interviews with and treatment of hundreds of such clients and on an extensive review of the literature, it also represents some of t...

Much has been written about how children of Holocaust survivors tend to absorb the psychological burdens of their parents. But questions remain regarding such parental transmission of Holocaust trauma. What was in fact passed on from parent to child? How does the transmission occur? Do parents invariably transmit and are children equally susceptibl...

The literature on transgenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma has grown into a rich body of unique psychological knowledge with almost 400 publications. For the time being, however, the transgenerational effect of the Holocaust on the offspring remains a subject of considerable controversy. The main question involves the presence or absence...

Holocaust survivors have often been described as inadequate parents. Their multiple losses were assumed to create child-rearing problems around both attachment and detachment. Empirical research, however, has yielded contradictory evidence regarding the parenting behavior of Holocaust survivors when investigated with classical parenting instruments...

The contributors to this book provide persuasive evidence of how psychodrama can safely be used to create paths of change for even the most severe traumatization. It is an invaluable resource for those interested in how to use psychodrama with different kinds of trauma survivors.

Survivors of the Holocaust and their children have tended not to be given formal diagnoses by their therapists. There seem to be a series of reasons: the events themselves were so terrible that it seems inappropriate to focus on the response, diagnosis implies comparing the condition with responses to other more minor traumata, the process of diagn...

This article defines sociodrama as an experiential group-as-a-whole procedure for social exploration and inter-group conflict trans-formation. As such, sociodrama can be regarded as an action-oriented and structured counterpart to group analysis with large groups. After a brief description of its history, practice and theory, three different applic...

The author presents an integrative approach to understanding and managing interpersonal conflicts that can be applied both to intragroup conflicts in psychotherapy groups and to the marital and organizational environment within either a psychoanalytical or an action-orientated framework. Four levels of intervention approaches are reviewed, includin...

Mary stands facing her mother with her hands out-stretched and weeping, urging her mother to look at her. But mother doesn't respond. Mary says: 'Look at me, mother!' But her mother is preoccupied with herself and looks away. The daughter is asked to take the role of her mother and, in that role, she says si1cntly: ' If I only knew how to convey my...

This book presents a systematic analysis of the essential therapeutic ingredients of psychodrama.

Validates J. L. Moreno's (published 1920–1964) theories on psychodrama from a metascientific point of view by examining the governing assumptions of psychodrama as a natural and a human science. It is concluded that the natural and human science aspects of psychodrama cross-pollinate one another and that both together are more complete than either...

Various aspects of psychodrama outcome research are examined, and 23 outcome studies, published between 1952 and 1985, are summarized in tabular form and interpreted as a whole. Although the limitations of these studies are recognized, it is concluded that psychodrama constitutes a valid alternative to other therapeutic approaches, especially in pr...

Compared I. Yalom's (1970) findings in a study of participants of verbal group psychotherapy—that the "agent of change appears to be the group and the intermember influence network"—with the results of a study carried out with 30 participants (aged 22–57 yrs) of psychodrama. Ss completed a therapeutic factor questionnaire. Results show that self-un...

Presents a brief historical survey of catharsis (CTH) and discusses the concept and curative value of CTH in terms of psychodrama and current thinking in psychotherapy. CTH is defined as the experience of release that occurs when a longstanding state of inner mobilization finds its outlet in action. Common experiences of CTH and emotional, cognitiv...

Defines the concepts transference, countertransference, and tele within the framework of interpersonal theory. Their application in psychoanalytic and psychodramatic therapy are compared and similarities are emphasized. It is suggested that both schools have in common the dilemma of how to handle the real reaction that was opposite the transference...