French psychoanalysis offers a wide range of studies on the problems of intergenerational transmission within families. In this paper I focus on four authors whose work, though important, has remained largely untranslated. The paper studies Serge Lebovici's emphasis on ‘fantasmatic interactions’ and Alain de Mijolla's reflection on ‘unconscious identification’ and strives to understand how Claude Nachin and Serge Tisseron, two followers of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, have presented and developed further ideas of ‘the phantom’ and ‘the crypt’. I try to place the debate within its French context and argue for its relevance in presenting building blocks of understanding in an important area of concern to psychoanalysis.