Intergenerational Trauma Essay

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When faced with a life altering situation although Molly’s characteristics and personality aid her in courageously defying them, the effects of facing this traumatic event will lead to long term psychological repercussions. When severe harm is inflicted on a person’s psyche, it is viewed as an emotional trauma (Levers, 2012). The emotional harm inflicted on Molly’s psyche originates from different dimensions; like her upbringing, her trauma is multidimensional too. As a child of the Indigenous community, whose ancestors and elders were killed violently in inter-group conflicts, and whose children were forcefully removed from families, Molly is would experience intergenerational trauma (Atkinson, 2002). Intergenerational trauma is trauma passed down from one generation to another; as a close knitted community group, the grief experienced by family members of losing their loved ones, would have been transferred across generations (Atkinson, …show more content…

As a child born to an inter-race couple, during her early years Molly also faced prejudices from some members of her own community, and was considered an outcaste who was isolated (Pilkington, 1996; Atkinson, 2002). All these experiences coupled with the ordeal of surviving an ardours trek along with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of her sisters, leads to me concur that Molly will present various emotional, psychological and behavioural symptoms like heightened alertness, vigilance, anxiousness, vivid nightmares, heart palpitations, intense emotional reactions, difficulty falling asleep and trust issues. All these symptoms are indicators to conclude that Molly will be diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome (Williams & Poijula, 2002). I also strongly suspect that she may face difficulties in reconciling her identity of being born to mixed race couple, leading to self-acceptance

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