Family transmissions: what is perpetuated.

We have talked in previous articles about the transgenerational unconscious (that which is not said but is repeated from generation to generation), family secrets and their effects, and also about mandates and psychological inheritance of all kinds.

In this article, we are going to talk about family transmissions in general. Everything that is transmitted, consciously or unconsciously, within a family, that which is repeated, that does not change or does so little, and that has continuity throughout the generations. This topic is important when talking about identity, independence, or individuation because in the evolutionary journey the choice and awareness about what to take and what not to take from these transmissions become a fundamental issue.

We come from a long history as human beings. We unconsciously bring experiences from time immemorial. The collective psyche is alive in us and manifests itself in dreams, in art, in rituals, and every time we can connect with expressive and spontaneous aspects. We can say, then, that many collective contents are transmitted to us or reach us that were not perceived or learned by us.

Simultaneously and in a more personal way, there is the unconscious that belongs to the bosom of a particular family. Here issues of the collective and the cultural are also mixed, but essentially, they imply the repression of once conscious issues, which were later dragged along through the generations. Family transmissions can, then, be both conscious and unconscious, and involve contents of both types.

Knowing your own family history is a very interesting starting point to be able to locate where to go. The collective history that we share as humans, and the specific history of a family, tells us a lot about who we are and allows us to raise awareness of aspects that, otherwise, would continue to be tirelessly repeated. That's where we come from. And knowing this is essential to know where we are going.

Many speeches, symptoms, family situations, issues that have been hidden, modalities that are repeated tell us about that journey. An interesting way to explore it, to plunge into the depths of history, is to ask close relatives for anecdotes or information. In addition to this being an act of self-knowledge, it is a way of honoring ancestors and those of greater age and experience in the family environment. Valuing their experiences is a way of acknowledging their place of importance in our lives and allows us to work on ourselves in order to plan a more conscious journey towards the future.

Working in a therapeutic space on those transmissions: both what is said, what is narrated, as well as what is not said, what has repeated automatically, helps us to disarm that which drags on and decide more freely. It allows us to separate what is our own from what is foreign, and find what unites us and what we want to continue perpetuating. In the future, we become more aware, largely thanks to this, of the possibility of knowing our history. What did they transmit to us and from there, what can we do with it, how do we transform it into the construction of our own identity.

 

Thank You