Introduction:
Transgenerational psychogenealogy is a practice developed by Anne Ancelin Schützenberger in the 1970’s. This new discipline combines both genealogy and psychology. Psychogenealogy is defined as a method of psychoanalysis. It is a technique that relies on the events, traumas, secrets and conflicts experienced by an individual’s ancestors and that resonate with his or her own problems, such as constitutional weaknesses, psychological disorders, illnesses, and even strange or inexplicable behaviors. Anne Ancelin Schützenberger’s theory is based on her own observations throughout her career. Sometimes the problems of our forefathers can have consequences on several generations but can also skip one or several generations before affecting an individual. Transgenerational therapy is composed of three steps First, a genosociogram is constructed (which we will see in the next section), then we focus on the listening of the spoken words, what is said and not said, the silences and the observed body language. The last step focuses on the feelings of the individuals as links are established.
The genosociogram :
In her therapy, Anne Ancelin Schützenberger proposes to create a genosociogram. This tool is a family tree that will allow the individual and the therapist to retrace the lives of the ancestors over at least five generations. The genosociogram highlights the important points in the life of the individuals, in particular the following elements: meeting, couple and choice of alliances, family composition, filiation and siblings, godparents, profession, money/assets/inheritance, illnesses, accidents and traumas (including war wounds), deaths, moves, displacements/migrations, facts of war and politics in France. For each event, the date must be indicated, so that the tool can highlight repetitions, anniversary dates, connections of family links or breaks, invisible loyalties, transmitted messages, hidden or disguised. The different cases can be highlighted either over several generations or between two members of the same family at different generations. The genosociogram is not limited to direct filiation but to all relationships that the patient considers necessary and important. The tool must respect some conventions in its writing. Indeed, signs are attributed to certain traits such as the round one which designates a woman, the square one a man; if a trait connects two individuals it is a free union, if there are two it is a marriage. The genosociogram is first constructed with the information that the individual possesses, then it collects additional information from his family and finally to complete the family tree we use the frequent investigation methods of genealogy, namely: research in the registers of the town halls, investigations in the regions of origin, etc. The genosociogram can also be constructed in a group so that the memories of some people awaken the memories of others. In this graphic representation, the psychogenealogist looks for repetitions, dates, names, professions, coincidences and then tries to interpret them. However, it must be taken into account that the genosociogram is not an objective document, it is not a scientifically validated tool.
The birthday syndrome:
In the paragraph above we mentioned the birthday syndrome, we will now see what this concept is according to Anne Ancelin Schützenberger. The various works and observations of the author were made with terminally ill cancer patients, which allowed her to identify in their genosociograms what she called birthday syndromes. By researching the family history of her patients, she found repetitions of structure or age, for example: the cancer sometimes started on the anniversary date or at the age at which a mother, grandfather or aunt had previously died of cancer or an accident. According to her, the unconscious plays a role since it would have a “memory”. Moreover, this would explain why every year, at the same period, some individuals feel anxious or depressed without knowing why, nor remembering that it is the anniversary period of the death of a family member, whom they sometimes did not even know. It is these events or repetitions that are called the anniversary syndrome.
How is it transmitted?
The work in psychogenealogy is often criticized because there is little scientific evidence to prove its effectiveness. Anne Ancelin Schützenberger, a pioneer in this discipline, is well aware of this and recognizes that what we observe over several generations is still not explicable psychologically, physiologically or even neurologically. She also has no explanation for the fact that therapeutic speech, through the awareness of a repetition, an invisible loyalty or the existence of a secret in the form of a ghost, allows the patient to break out of the pattern or even to be cured of his or her illness. However, she believes that advances in psychoneurobiology will provide answers in the years to come. It should be noted that studies have already highlighted a genetic or cellular memory and put forward the hypothesis that our experience could be contained in our genetic heritage and thus be transmitted to our descendants.
Example of a patient who had recourse to this therapy (published on psychologies site by Erik Pigani): For years, François had suffered from sore throats and Reynaud’s syndrome, a bad blood circulation of the extremities of the limbs, which gives a permanent sensation of cold. “All attempts to treat these problems with conventional medicine had failed,” he explains. I had the opportunity to engage in psychogenealogy work with a therapist. For a few months, I had to build my family tree by investigating my family origins. It took me a long time, but I managed to trace my family back to the Revolution in the Vendée. I then discovered that my grandfather was also called François and that he had been guillotined on January 9, 1793. I was born on that same day, one hundred and seventy years later, on January 9, 1963. We then played this historical episode in psychodrama, and all my symptoms disappeared!”
Bibliography:
Book : Ancelin Schützenberger, A., (1993). Aïe, mes aïeux.