Emotional Inheritance

A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma

De: Galit Atlas

Narrado por: Galit Atlas

Award-winning psychoanalyst Dr. Galit Atlas draws on her patients' stories—and her own life experiences—to shed light on how generational trauma affects our lives in this "intimate, textured, compassionate" book (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness).

The people we love and those who raised us live inside us; we experience their emotional pain, we dream their memories, and these things shape our lives in ways we don’t always recognize. Emotional Inheritance is about family secrets that keep us from living to our full potential, create gaps between what we want for ourselves and what we are able to have, and haunt us like ghosts.

In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance” we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“An intimate, textured, and compassionate exploration of intergenerational trauma, how it is carried and transmitted within families, and how it can be skillfully invited in, recognized, attenuated, and perhaps resolved through the therapeutic relationship, metabolizing what has hitherto not been named or nameable.”—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness

“Beautiful, artistic, and elegant. Dr. Atlas skillfully uses stories from her practice to explore the archeology of transgenerational trauma. The descriptions of the therapeutic process pull you in; you come to know both patient and therapist. In doing so, you cannot help but reflect on your own journey. Emotional Inheritance is a gem for anyone, but it is an essential read for those seeking to understand trauma, therapy, and the healing process.”—Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, coauthor (with Oprah Winfrey) of the #1 New York Times Bestseller What Happened to You?

"Dr. Atlas writes with profound living compassion for those who have carried, in their bodies, minds, hearts, spirits and souls, the most often unspoken and secret traumas of their own hurt elders. As a first-generation American child growing up in my tough family of war refugees, deportees—the ethnically cleansed, struggling immigrants, I humbly assert that I know about generational traumas in depth. I recognize Dr. Atlas as one who writes in full knowing detail—about what I call in my work, ‘the generational wound."—Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves

"With elegance, Galit Atlas explains the troubling and nourishing aspects of our emotional inheritances. She deftly shows why the hurts and stuckness that can plague us can be faced and, yes, dissolved. Contemporary psychoanalysis at its best. And good storytelling, too."—Susie Orbach, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue

“An illuminating book. The stories Dr. Atlas shares reveal the potency of our inherited wounds, showing how the experiences of our ancestors shape our lives in quiet but far-reaching ways, and how we all have the potential to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

"Galit Atlas has given us a gift with her book Emotional Inheritance. With warmth and compassion, she is able to show the reader the ways our present challenges could be linked to our inherited past. Using patient stories and her own experiences, we are taken on a journey of discovery. By sharing these stories, she gives us a glimpse behind our own curtains and helps us understand that if we are open to the possibility of hope, now might be the right time to break the silence our ancestors have held for so long."—Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness

Complex Info Made Understandable

The information presented thru individual stories shared was incredibly helpful for understanding. I learned so much and am grateful!

This is a must read for everybody!

It took me two days to read this book - the author covers things in such an amazing way, while showing how our ancestors trauma is interwoven into us, she uses actual case examples.

“2nd and 3rd generation descendants genocide survivors… these are high productive and functioning people living with ghosts of persecution inside them. Under the surface they carry the trauma and guilt of the survivors. I learned that these people, from childhood age have images, daydreams, nightmares of the genocide. The memories live inside them, even if their parents and grandparents never talked about it. It continues to effect them and the way they live.”

As a 3rd generation descendant survivor of the Armenian genocide, and also have the survivor guilt of having family in Lebanon during the civil war in the 80s and in Syria during the current conflict - I can see how this trauma can be carried on to us survivors. I know as a child knowing the stories of the genocide, I would think about it often. I even went into refugee work and then took on secondary trauma from all the refugees - I never thought about the cycle of all of this. What my grandparents and great grandmother went through, I was now hearing daily at work from applicants and did this for many many years.

My great grandmother got her neck partially cut off by soldiers and it was deep while she was running and carrying two kids. She somehow held her head on, although she had to of been bleeding, and kept running for safety… she kept going… and the lesson to me in that has always been, no matter what - you keep going. But I don’t know if we always have to. If we are hurt, maybe we need to stop and take care of ourselves.

I think another learned thing from both sides of my family was that my great grandmother in the Middle East was left as the sole parent, because all the men were killed and my maternal grandmother was left as the sole parent, when my paternal grandfather died of cancer (when my mom was 14). Both women had to be strong independent women and raise their kids on their own and manage life - my maternal grandmother had to run a farm. My paternal great grandmother had to get her children to safety as refugees and find a new home and life for them after living only in a village for their entire lives. Female independence was inherited in my life and that is obvious in my sisters and my life.

This book can make you think about your friends lives and your own..: it is well worth reading and a fast one.

Fascinating book but read way too slow

At normal speed I was having trouble listening because of the exaggerated pauses and how slow it was being read. But once I bumped up the speed I was hooked by the stories and really enjoyed this book. Not a lot of research-backed data on emotional inheritance but really interesting stories and made me think of similar parallels in my own life.

Intriguing

I thought the stories were good and couldn’t help but get immersed in them. Some made me cry, others laugh and smile.

Wow! A must read!

This was an excellent book, Galit’s performance is phenomenal! There is so much wisdom in each story. I gained a lot of self insight while listening. In full disclosure, there are times I had to take breaks to reorient myself emotionally before continuing. However, the amount of discovery in these pages I’m sure is enough to spark personal shifts within your own story and understanding.

Completely extraordinary book, I will be on the look out for more works by Galit!