Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma Across Generations presents the reader with an impressive selection of current psychoanalytic perspectives on the transmission of trauma. The book follows from two of the Fall Conferences of the Erikson Institute, the education and research arm of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, USA. It contains a wide range of papers, some written by authors well known for their contributions on the subject, while others bring fresh impressions and new ideas. Together, the contributions form a representative collection, woven into a rich and evocative tapestry by the editor, M. Gerard Fromm. As such, the book can serve as an introduction for the reader who wishes to sample the main ideas in the field or as an overview for the reader who is already familiar with some of these conceptualisations.

The book is divided into three parts, with some overlap between them. Accordingly, some chapters in the first part, “Shadows of the holocaust,” relate to clinical material in the vein of the second part,