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I was drawn to this book as the topic of how trauma travels through time interests me. As a CT3 in psychiatry currently working in a psychotherapy department, I have seen in my own work the way that relational patterns are replicated generation after generation. The book struck me as accessible due the structure of relating theories to real life occurrences, using many widely known examples.
Fromm draws upon many of the atrocities of our recent history and looks at how the trauma of the events lives on, in both society and the individual. Not only does this approach make the psychoanalytic concepts accessible, it also gives the reader a deeper understanding of history and how it may affect the reader and the people we interact with.
The book is broken into three parts: trauma in families, organizations and society. Various important and unsettling events of history are addressed: the rise of Jihad, 9/11, clusters of college student suicides, and PTSD affecting ex-military persons. Attention is given to both the historical trauma that forms part of the context for these events, alongside the ongoing lasting effect of the events.
Perhaps the most gripping chapter for me takes the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, a 24 year old man who ventures into the wild and ultimately dies. Having watched the cinematic portrayal of this story in the film ‘Into the Wild’, I was really able to connect with this chapter. Fromm’s analysis of the conscious and unconscious beliefs that led Christopher to depart upon his tragic journey transformed my perception from an adventure gone wrong to, as Fromm describes it, ‘an identity crisis ultimately becoming an identity end’.
Another chapter that stood out for me was ‘Erik Erikson and the “cogwheeling” of life cycles’. Having studied Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development, this chapter gave an insight into the life and experiences that influenced Erikson’s theories. Fromm, who directed the Erikson Institute at the Austen Rigg