Dynamische Psychiatrie • Dynamic Psychiatry

Authors

Tarashoeva Galabina MD, PhD, Bulgaria, Shmidt Cristina, Romania / Austria
Marinova-Djambazova, Petra MD, PhD

Abstract

In the presented case, a traumatic story about one of the client’s ancestors influenced her behavior and attitude toward life, although she does not have any information about this story. Her actions seem to be an answer to a danger, but the danger is not present. No logic can explain why she is preparing or acting as if she needs to survive a kind of disastrous event. She doesn’t ask herself what the reason is for acting the way she does.

Through the exploration of ancestral trauma in a surplus reality of the psychodrama stage and the protagonist’s invisible loyalty to her father, she has embarked on a journey of self-discovery and self-identity. The client’s life has undergone a profound transformation, leading to significantly positive changes.

Introduction

We all live in challenging times of wars, terrorism, and complex conflicts of various natures, and none of us knows when circumstances will force us to make difficult moral choices.
These choices can change not only our lives but also the lives of generations after us, especially if we are ashamed of our choices and try to keep them quiet or secret.
The father’s long-kept secret of murder in special circumstances in his youth is suddenly revealed only to the daughter. Psychodramatic work on the daughter’s memory of this moment of sharing leads the protagonist to insights into oddities and inexplicable behaviors of her.

Working with psychodrama with trauma passed down through generations confronts us with the following questions:

Research questions: 

1. How can psychodrama help in intergenerational trauma therapy?
2. How can some concepts of intergenerational psychotherapy increase the effectiveness and improve the results of psychodrama therapy?

 

Theoretical background

From Tihamer Bako, we learn, “Because of the overwhelming nature of the collective trauma, the boundary between generations becomes blurred, and the next generation cannot build its own identity independently from its parents. The children of the traumatized generation, the second generation following the first, are called by Prager the “lost generation.” These children, having lost their own childhood and identity, are predisposed to identify more with the traumatic past of their parents than with their own present.” (Bako T. et all 2020, Page 13).  Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy emphasizes the importance of relationships that take into account fairness and impartiality in the family, for building a meaningful relationship (Heireman M. 1989). He is convinced that we cannot get rid of the tyranny of these obligations, and the escape from moral obligations to the family is able to fill all human relations of the individual with intolerable feelings of guilt and paralyze him from “Amorphous and unbearable feelings of existential guilt.“ He sees the goal and power of therapeutic intervention in the possibility of restoring the ethics of transgenerational relationships. What transgenerational therapy can achieve is to offer a tool and help the individual to have “the courage to face his obligations and his feelings of guilt arising from unpaid emotional debts.”

 Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok (ABRAHAM N. et al. 1978) speak of a ghost or phantom when someone else’s shameful secret is at work in the unconscious. It is not the dead who become ghosts, but the gaps left in the individual by the secrets of others. The phantom can guide the choice of hobby, profession, and behavior, charged with a meaning not revealed by the symbolism of the individual life but only by knowing the traumatic part of the family history.The phantom returns in the form of strange behavior or symptoms in the next generations.Some traumatic stories of the ancestors influence their descendants’ behavior and attitude towards life, although they do not have any information about these stories. From a transgenerational point of view, the individual haunted by the “phantom out of the crypt” suffers from a “genealogical family disease,” from unconscious, invisible family loyalty, from the consequences of what has become a secret silence (Schützenberger A. 1998).

Anne Ancelin Schützenberger (Schützenberger, A. 1998), a direct student of the founder of Psychodrama J. L. Moreno, explains in her book The Ancestor Syndrome (1998) how she combines the main concepts of psychodrama (Tele, Social atom, Pole Theory) with the other concepts in her clinical practice, developing Genosociogram and Anniversary syndrome.

Methodology

Case study

The authors are presenting a case of a protagonist-centered work during a training weekend, in which unexpectedly, the path of the psychodrama process of the protagonist went in the previous generation. This paper refers to the data collected from the notes of the co-trainer, written during the session, the notes of the first author, who directed the session, written after the session, and the trainees’ written protocol and self-reflection, which are elements of the training program. Data were analyzed with the co-trainer as well as in the process analysis session with the whole group. This allows the information in all written notes to be compared and corrected and the missed moments to be fulfilled. After the session, data were discussed and analyzed with the co-authors in supervision sessions.Following the contract of confidentiality, the names are fictional, and some facts that do not affect the research process have been changed. After reading the article, the client signed an informed consent form for publication in an international scientific journal. 

Methodology of the therapeutic modality

Method and Techniques of Psychodrama: In Psychodrama, the meeting of the Protagonist (the person who is working on his difficulties) with different Antagonists (the Others in the presented problem) in the Surplus Reality (the reality created in the Psychodrama Stage, which could be in the past, future, even imaginary, fantasized one, but it is as if it is here and now, always in present time ) allows the protagonist to achieve deep experience and understanding of the others. The roles of the antagonists are presented by the protagonist, entering in them one by one, which helps the Auxiliary Egos (a group member or a co-therapist in the role of protagonist or antagonist) to play them. First, the presented situation is enacted as it happened in reality in the past (doing); after that, in Re-doing, the protagonist has the chance to experience it in a new, healthy way.

 

 

(Figure 1)

Starting with classical psychodrama from a present problem, using Role Reverse (a basic technique in Psychodrama, when the protagonist and the antagonist change their roles and the protagonist can experience the emotions and the reactions of the other one), Mirroring (a basic technique in Psychodrama, when one Auxiliary Ego plays the role of the protagonist, the other one Auxiliary Ego place the role of antagonist, and the protagonist is observing from outside as in a mirror herself), and Doubling (a basic technique in Psychodrama when a group member or the therapist tries to verbalize unspoken thoughts or emotions of the protagonist in his role or in the role of antagonist), following the “keys” of the protagonist, we descend on the time spiral as usual in classical psychodrama. In this case, we go down not only into the individual life of the protagonist, but we open the door of the time before her birth, into the youth of the protagonist’s father, and enter his tragic story.

The context

Historical context in Romania

In 1968, a youth resistance movement started as a solidarity movement among the youth in Eastern European countries. After the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, Romania would be the next on the list. The agents of security services were supervising all the people, arresting them, and putting them in jail with no official documents.

Presentation of the data: Description of the case and the session  The father and his descendants.
The father, “St.”, is from Romania. He emigrated to Bulgaria after the youth solidarity social-political movement (1968) in East Europe. When St. was a young boy in Romania, he had a girlfriend, his immense love, named “Irene”.
The daughter, “Irina”, bears almost the same name as his great love from his youth in Romania.Since childhood, the daughter has been permeated with self-defense training and has become skilled in using different kinds of guns, not knowing why. When she became a mother, she trained and educated her two children to survive in burdensome situations. She strongly influenced her son to study at a National Military University.Beautiful lady “Irina” doesn’t wear dresses and ignores her femininity. She has various behavioral quirks. An excellent, valued, and respected therapist, she dreamed of becoming a big truck driver and successfully took the driving test for the relevant category. For weeks, as an experiment, she warmed an egg with her body, between her breasts, in the hope that a chick would hatch.
The son of this father has no family and is convinced that children should not be born because people are evil. Although he is a doctor, well integrated into society and in his workplace, he claims that if it were up to him, all people would die, and only animals would live. The protagonist (“Irina”) is a 41-year-old divorced woman who is a member of a psychodrama training group. She has an 18-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.

The session

The psychodrama training group meets one weekend monthly for 20 working hours (45 min.). It has 8 participants and 2 trainers.“Irina” is a little late for this working weekend because the same morning, she drove her son to the competitive exam for admission at the National Military University. She is very excited because this was her dream, which became a reality! However, she has doubts that this is a good choice for him.  “Irina” is very emotional and shares about a professional event where she encountered a man reminding her father. Speaking for her father, a memory came to her mind. After a short hesitation, she decides that she wants to share with the group a secret her father shared with her on her 30th birthday, and it hadn’t been letting her rest for 11 years. During contracting about the aim of her work, “Irina” just wanted to become free of this secret’s heaviness and hesitation and think about her father with more understanding and calmness. 

The first scene on the psychodrama stage: The evening after “Irina” celebrates her 30th birthday in the family villa, the other family members go to sleep in their rooms. Irina sits on the terrace smoking, and her father comes to her and tells his story.

The Protagonist (Pr.) “Irina”, in the role of her father, “St.”, came to the Auxiliary Ego (AE) in the role of “Irina” and told her the story. After that, Irina, in her role, hears the story from another AE in the role of her father:

“In 1968, after the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the students started to organize secret resistance meetings, and we, with “Irene”, were part of it. My friends told me that “Irene” became involved in a relationship with a (possible) security officer and told me she was a traitor and must be severely punished and destroyed. It became clear to me that she would not only be killed but also humiliated, tortured, and raped. I decided to spare her all that and shot her. After that, I escaped and came to live in Bulgaria.”

(Figure 2)

After telling the story, the father went to sleep in his room.After hearing this story, “Irina” is shocked and very tense. She can’t sleep and stays outside smoking. The father wakes up to drink water, comes to her, and tells her, “This story is untrue; I just wanted to test your reaction.”After this first scene, the Protagonist, “Irina”, in Monolog (a psychodrama technique in which the protagonist speaks his thoughts and feelings to himself aloud), expresses her thoughts, emotions, and hesitations that she had suppressed during the next 11 years because her father didn’t want to return to this story. “The ambiguity is tearing me apart!” „Eight years after this birthday, my father died from cancer, and I started attempts to discover the truth – conversations with my mother and brother, but the daddy didn’t tell them this story. My uncle, his brother, told me, “Don’t dig into the past; let the past be the past!” For me, this answer confirms the truth of the story.”  “The uncertainty of whether my father took another’s life is tearing me apart! Doubts tear me. I don’t know what power is used for; I’ve been scolded so much for being rude, scolded for my attraction to guns and shooting.”

“Irina”, out of the scene and in her actual role, explained to the group: I have liked weapons since I was little. I do not know why. At 16, I bought a gas pistol with my own money, after crossbows and melee weapons.

The director: What are your guns for?
Irina: I imagine a crisis, and I am one of the survivors.
The director: Why?
Irina: We are on the Earth too much! Only the strongest will survive! My father taught me about survival in difficult situations during our childhood walks in the forest.

The second scene – the protagonist is angry with her father for telling this story only to her, not to the other family members, and wants to see the scene where the father is telling this story to the whole family. In the psychodrama stage, we are re-doing the painful event in a new way. It is the same birthday; all family members are around the table. In the interviews of the director with the protagonist in the roles of the different antagonists, we learn their thoughts about “Irina”:The father: I don’t share her understanding of the world, people, and guns. I disapprove of them, but I don’t stop her! Our relationship is close and trusting. I love her!

The brother: I don’t like guns; they’re nuts! This world is going away! There are too many people, and if I could, I would kill them all, including myself, and only the animals and plants would remain.

The brother to “Irina”: How often have I told you that by helping people, you are supporting the bad part of the world?

The mother: How many times have I told you that you should take care of yourself?! You, with those cigarettes! “Irinche”, when will you accept that you are a woman and wear a dress!?”

The protagonist in the role of the father is telling the story to the family:

„….. I shot this girl so she wouldn’t fall into their hands, and they couldn’t torture and rape her! I’m not proud of what I did. I was forced, and I did it to save her pain and humiliation!“The protagonist expresses her anger to her father, screaming, “Why did you tell only me? What do you think? How did I feel after that?” “I don’t know who you are anymore! It turns out that the “good bear” is actually a murderer! You disappoint me! My brother and I are bad, but you are a monster!”

(Figure 3)

The director supported the protagonist in expressing all her emotions and thoughts. After anger came profound expressions of sadness, fear, and tears.

In the Third scene, the director suggests „Irina”, a meeting between the father and “the spirit” of „Irene”, placed in the hereafter, where he asks forgiveness after explaining his reasons for doing what he has done. „Irina”, not very enthusiastic, accepted and, in her father’s role, asked for forgiveness from “the spirit” of „Ireene”:  “Please forgive me! I have done this because I couldn’t stand you to fall into their hands, and they tortured, humiliated, and raped you! I’m not proud of this; this was not an easy choice, but I haven’t what else to do!“

After that, “Irina”, in the role of “the spirit” of Irene, hearing the Auxiliary Ego in her father’s role, exploded: “I can’t forgive you. You took everything I have, and I can’t understand your choice because I don’t know anything worse than being dead.”

(Figure 4)

The protagonist is angry with the director and resists any attempts to double.
The director suggested to “Irina” that she meet “the spirit” of “Irene” as herself.

 

Fourth Scene 

“Irina”: Here, I could be myself; I can do this!

“Irina” to “the spirit” of “Irene”: Please forgive me! What my father has done is a heavy choice and a burden!  It left its mark on the generation after him – I couldn’t explain why I had a passion for guns when no one in the family approved of them! That’s why! I have the right to be happy and have this burden removed! I have no guilt, neither for the events in the Romania Republic in 1968 nor for my father’s choice! I should not bear such a heavy responsibility! May he atone for his sins in the hereafter! This is a relationship between the two of you!

“Irina,” in the role of “Irene,” forgives “Irina.”

(Figure 5)

In the sharing phase, the group sat in a circle and shared their experiences and emotions with “Irina” in roles or as themselves. “Irina’s” experience deeply touched all group members.

After the group sharing, “Irina” gave very positive feedback and was deeply thankful to the group and the director.

In subsequent group meetings, “Irina” comes with dresses, delicate makeup, and beautiful jewelry. At the next meeting, after about a month, “Irina” informs the group with a smile that her son has left the National Military University on the third day, and she accepts this without a problem.

A year later, “Irina” wrote: It was so real to me! I was relieved at the moment I spoke with her. This topic had taken over my life. Not a day went by that I didn’t think about it, how to find out the truth, who the girl was, and more. I couldn’t sleep. It was leading in my daily life. After this work, this story is closed. I have no questions; nothing weighs on me. I was able to continue.

About two years after this work, “Irina” evaluated her psychodrama as one of the most important events in her life. She shared that it definitely changed her life in a very positive direction.

Results and Discussion

Some “Irina’s actions seem to be an answer to danger, but the danger is not present. No logic can explain why the daughter is preparing or acting as if she needs to survive a disastrous event, and there is no experience of this kind in her own life. At the same time, she doesn’t ask herself why she acts the way she does, as it is natural behavior. A powerful, inexplicable inner force subjects not only the daughter’s life but also her children to training survival skills in all kinds of extreme circumstances. As if, just for this case, Tihamer Bako wrote that the children of the traumatized generation ‘are predisposed to identify more with the traumatic past of their parents than with their own present.” (Bako T. et all 2020, Page 13).

The life of this father’s son is totally subject to philosophy: “Children should not be born because the people are bad. All people should die, and only animals should live.” It is not difficult to imagine similar thoughts and beliefs of his father when he was young, not only because of the terrible sociopolitical situation but also because of the behaviors of his friends, his girlfriend, and finally himself. Probably, the invisible loyalty to the father’s beliefs during a time of deep crises in his youth became the son’s life philosophy and imperative for his way of life. The daughter of the father who shot his girlfriend is inexplicably but irresistibly drawn to guns since she was a child. As if that loyalty to the father wasn’t enough for this child, but this father, out of love and guilt for his murdered girlfriend, gives her a name almost identical to hers and trains her in emergency survival skills. Probably, he was hoping she would survive this time. How does a child grow up carrying the invisible loyalty to his father and, at the same time, to “Irene”; to the killer, and at the same time to the victim? Maybe growing up with this inner split, it is not easy to feel comfortable with her feminine role. And not knowing why this girl was preparing herself to work in one of the most male professions – driving a big international TIR truck. As if deeply and profoundly knowing that it is dangerous to be a girl. Dreaming to travel in the world, searching for something lost. At the same time, she is hardly trying to give life to the chicken in the egg through her body warmth! Nicolas Abraham & Maria Torok (ABRAHAM N. et al. 1978) would call the secret of “Irene’s” death, kept by the father for more than 30 years, a “ghost” or a “phantom,” which is passed from the unconscious of a parent to the unconscious of his children. The phantom returns in the form of strange behavior or symptoms, such as we see with “Irina”. According to them, the Phantom is an unnamable, unshareable, shameful secret (as this for the murder of the loved girlfriend) ofthe father ‘St.” who, like a badly buried dead man in a “secret subterranean tomb” within him, cannot stay there, lifts the slab and goes to hide in the crypt in the body of “Irina” and her brother, in their hearts, from where he comes out, to be recognized, not to be forgotten, to remember the event.In the case of “Irina”, the incomprehensible passion for guns and weapons that began in childhood continued until the moment of her psychodrama, despite the disapproval of all her relatives.After “Irina” identifies her crypt, she names the “ghost” and distinguishes herself from the ghost of the father, who will leave in peace. In the beginning, in the surplus reality, the protagonist expresses repressed feelings (Irina’s anger and sadness towards her father) and completes unfinished emotional processes (Irina’s need, her father to share the responsibility of caring his shameful secret with the whole family, not just her).The attempt to work with the guilt and shame feelings through asking and receiving forgiveness, in this case, didn’t give a result – there is no forgiveness for murder, even if it is your father. “I do forgive him? – absurd!”

In the Surplus reality of her psychodrama, “Irina”, as “Irene”, could not forgive what her father had done, clearly distinguishing herself from his actions that led to his shameful secret. Then, in her role, she once again clearly dissociated herself from his father’s responsibilities and demanded that he atone in the afterlife. With that, she was not only forgiven by “Irene”, but the ghost of the emptiness from the kept secret was “de-identified,” left in peace, and the crypt was closed.

Working with ancestors’ trauma in surplus reality and the protagonist’s invisible loyalty to her father, she had the chance to experience corrective emotional experiences on a transgenerational level. In the meeting with ‘the spirt’ of the antagonist, “Irene”, “Irina” is made aware that she does not need to act the unhealthy way she does and distinguishes her life from the father’s tragic story and his guilt.

Through the exploration of ancestral trauma in a surplus reality of the psychodrama stage and the protagonist’s invisible loyalty to her father, she has embarked on a journey of self-discovery and self-identity. The insights of the protagonist in the roles of the antagonists on the psychodrama stage start to undergo a profound transformation, leading to a significantly positive change. Moreover, she has fostered a new understanding with her son, allowing him to navigate his life independently and confidently.

After her psychodrama, the protagonist shared, “My father always told me that if I crossed the borders, he would never cover me up. He was telling me, “You have to be punished so you can go on living.” Strictly educating his daughter in justice and deserving punishment for transgressions, it is as if this father was preparing the right judge in front of whom he needs to confess his sin one day. The just sentence of the daughter thus brought up by this father was, “He must atone for his guilt in the hereafter!” In her inner world, this restored the balance of morality and justice to the “Family bookkeeping ledger,” as Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy would say (Boszormenyi-Nagy, I. 2014). This changed the protagonist’s personal life and attitude toward her son’s choices.

Six months after the end of the training program “Irina” wrote, “After this psychodrama, I am different. I felt the freedom to breathe! Before, I wasn’t even clearly aware that I couldn’t breathe freely! After this work, it was as if I began to breathe! ”

 

Conclusion

The surplus reality of Psychodrama provides an excellent opportunity for profound experiences not only from one’s own life but also from the roles of ancestors and people who lived before the birth of the protagonist and the chance to clearly distinguish the guilt and responsibility of ancestors and symbolically return them, so that their successors can continue their lives free from the guilt of others, in peace with themselves and those who lived before them.

The presented concepts of Intergenerational and Transgenerational therapy enrich the psychodrama method and provide an essential, deep, and extended understanding of relationships between generations. The concepts of invisible loyalty, the “ghost” of the secret’s emptiness, and the balance of justice and morality help Psychodramatists see clearly the underlying processes and use psychodrama tools to achieve therapeutic goals.

Data availability statement

The current study generated and analyzed all data sets in English. The Bulgarian data will be available upon request.

Funding

Not applicable.

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to the protagonist for her trust and work, to the group members for their sincere involvement in the roles, to my co-therapist for her creative teamwork, and to the members of the IAGP Professional Writing group for their support!

 

References

Anne Ancelin Schützenberger, The Ancestor Syndrome, 1998, Routledge.

Abraham Nicolas & Torok Maria‚ L‘Écorce et le Noyau Paris: Aubier-Flammarion, 1978.

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Geraldine M Spark, Invisible Loyalties, 2014, Routledge, NY

Magda Heireman Du cote de chez soi: la thérapie contextuelle d’Iván Böszörményi-Nagy Paris: ESF, 1989

Tihamer Bako, Katalin Zana, Transgenerational Trauma and Therapy, 2020, Routledge.

Information about the authors

Tarashoeva Galabina MD, PhD, Bulgaria  is an experienced Bulgarian psychiatrist and psychotherapist, active since 1979 and specialized in psychodrama. They are the founder of the Psychodrama Center Orpheus, co-founder of FEPTO, and have contributed nationally and internationally to the development of psychotherapy, particularly in crisis intervention and professional training. The author has been honored twice by the Bulgarian Association for Psychotherapy for their strategic and overall contribution to the field.
Contact details research: Galabina Tarashoeva: orpheuspsychodrama@gmail.com