Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Foreword by Robert Sapolsky
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- SECTION ONE HISTORICAL, CROSS-CULTURAL, AND DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES
- SECTION TWO HOW EXPERIENCE INTERACTS WITH BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
- SECTION THREE FORMATIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN AND ACROSS GENERATIONS
- 7 Ethnographic Case Study: Bofi Foragers and Farmers – Case Studies on the Determinants of Parenting Behavior and Early Childhood Experiences
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 8 Clinical Case Study: Good Expectations – A Case Study of Perinatal Child-Parent Psychotherapy to Prevent the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 9 Ethological Case Study: Infant Abuse in Rhesus Macaques
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 10 Clinical Case Study: Multigenerational Ataques De Nervios in a Dominican American Family – A Form of Intergenerational Transmission of Violent Trauma?
- Commentary
- Commentary
- SECTION FOUR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS OF CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT – NORMATIVE SETTINGS, PRACTICES, AND CONSEQUENCES
- SECTION FIVE FEAR, FUN, AND THE BOUNDARIES OF SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
- SECTION SIX PUBLIC HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
- Index
- References
Commentary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Foreword by Robert Sapolsky
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- SECTION ONE HISTORICAL, CROSS-CULTURAL, AND DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES
- SECTION TWO HOW EXPERIENCE INTERACTS WITH BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
- SECTION THREE FORMATIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN AND ACROSS GENERATIONS
- 7 Ethnographic Case Study: Bofi Foragers and Farmers – Case Studies on the Determinants of Parenting Behavior and Early Childhood Experiences
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 8 Clinical Case Study: Good Expectations – A Case Study of Perinatal Child-Parent Psychotherapy to Prevent the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 9 Ethological Case Study: Infant Abuse in Rhesus Macaques
- Commentary
- Commentary
- 10 Clinical Case Study: Multigenerational Ataques De Nervios in a Dominican American Family – A Form of Intergenerational Transmission of Violent Trauma?
- Commentary
- Commentary
- SECTION FOUR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS OF CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT – NORMATIVE SETTINGS, PRACTICES, AND CONSEQUENCES
- SECTION FIVE FEAR, FUN, AND THE BOUNDARIES OF SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
- SECTION SIX PUBLIC HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The case study by Dr. Schechter presents a fascinating account of a 29-year-old mother presenting in a hospital with her two children (5 years and 8 months, respectively), with the younger child exhibiting seizure-like symptoms at arrival. As the case study unfolds, the reader learns that the mother and her older child also suffer from seizure-like symptoms. Despite efforts by the doctors to identify a medical cause for these seizures, no medical explanation for these symptoms can be found. Over the course of her life, the mother had been diagnosed with a variety of psychiatric conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and conversion disorder (non-epileptic seizures). It becomes evident that she had suffered repeated and severe physical, sexual, and emotional abuse during her early childhood and adolescence. Although she reports that her children have not been exposed to any severe trauma, the children exhibit similar symptoms, including PTSD-like symptoms and non-epileptic seizures. Mother and children seem to have benefitted from psychotherapeutic intervention. In summary, two interesting phenomena have occurred: (1) after being exposed to severe stress early in her life, the mother developed a variety of psychiatric and medically unexplained somatic symptoms; and (2) these symptoms have been passed on from one generation to the next. The mechanisms underlying these phenomena are unclear and difficult to illuminate. The author of the case study thoroughly examines the potential psychological mechanisms translating trauma experienced early in life into somatic symptoms and the subsequent transmission of these symptoms from mother to child.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Formative ExperiencesThe Interaction of Caregiving, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology, pp. 270 - 276Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010