The Ancestor Syndrome

209 Pages·2014·1.79 MB·English

by  Schutzenberger

The Ancestor Syndrome

In The Ancestor Syndrome, Anne Ancelin Schützenberger shows how, as mere
links in a chain of generations, we may have no choice in having the events and
traumas experienced by our ancestors visited upon us in our own lifetime.
The book includes fascinating case studies and examples of ‘genosociograms’
(family trees) to illustrate how her clients have conquered seemingly irrational
fears, psychological and even physical difficulties by discovering and
understanding the parallels between their own life and the lives of their
forebears. The theory of invisible loyalty owed to previous generations, which
may make us unwittingly re-enact their life events, is discussed in the light of
ongoing research into transgenerational therapy.
First published in France as Aïe, mes aïeux!, this fascinating insight into a
unique style of clinical work is already a best seller and will appeal to anyone
working in the psychotherapy profession as well as to mental health
professionals.
Anne Ancelin Schützenberger is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the
University of Nice and co-founder of the International Association of Group
Psychotherapy. She is also internationally renowned as a trainer in group
psychotherapy and psychodrama.
The Ancestor Syndrome
Transgenerational psychotherapy and the hidden links in
the family tree

Anne Ancelin Schützenberger
Translated by Anne Trager
First published in the UK in 1998
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Reprinted 1999, 2004, 2007 and 2009
Transferred to digital printing 2010
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 1998 Anne Ancelin Schützenberger;
translation © 1998 Anne Trager Originally published in 1993 as Aïe, mes aieux!: Liens transgénérationnels,
secrets de famille, syndrome d'anniversaire et pratique du genosociogramme
Typeset in Sabon by Routledge

This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict environmental standards and with
pulp derived from sustainable forests.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, induding photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in
Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 978–0–415–19187–6 (pbk)
To my daughter, Hélène, and my
grandchildren, Aude, Pierre and François.
To my trainees, clients and students, with
much gratitude for having taught me so much
about transmission and learning and
repetitions from generation to generation.
The dead are invisible, they are not absent.
Saint Augustine
Contents

List of figures
Preface: the living past, or grandfather's parrot
Acknowledgements
PART I
The transgenerational approach
1 A genealogy of transgenerational therapy: from the unconscious to the
genosociogram
2 Family therapy and the genogram/genosociogram
3 Invisible loyalties
4 Psychosomatic/somatopsychic: the mind–body connection
5 The crypt and the phantom
6 Origin and death
7 The genosociogram and the anniversary syndrome: my research
8 How to build your genosociogram
9 My transgenerational clinical practice
PART II
Case studies with simplified genosociograms
10 Anniversary syndrome and invisible family loyalty
Charles: anniversary syndrome and invisible loyalty
Mark: family repetition of accidents
Jacqueline: the Armenian genocide
Valerie and Roger: can you “inherit” car accidents?
11 Family configuration and the double anniversary syndrome
Vulnerability and anniversary stress
Two brothers, one survivor
Lucien: genealogical incest
“Mrs Andrew”
The Martin-Leroux family: triple genealogical incest
Two Mrs Browns: unresolved genealogical incest
Continuing the spiral of relations by marriage
The reconstituted family
12 Legacy and family structure
The Mortelacs: child deaths over several generations
Predictions and maledictions in history
The effects of “strong words”
Delenda – a father's anger and a child's sex
The priest: strong words misunderstood
Van Gogh, Dali and Freud: replacement child and repairing child
Cendrine and a few others: marking the anniversary
Four other examples
Noelle: conflict of habit and food identity
13 Conclusion: the human canopy
Appendix 1: Definition of the crypt and the phantom
Appendix 2: Josephine Hilgard's statistical research
Appendix 3: On the souls of women
Appendix 4: An example of substitution incest
Appendix 5: “I remember”: stigmata of family memories
Appendix 6: Trauma of the “wind of the cannonball”
Appendix 7: Incest and second-type incest