"I am a consequential damage of detention" - Protreacted non-determinability in the reconstruction of traumatic experiences in the descendants of victims of political persecution byt the SED dictatorship in the GDR

The descendants of the political persecution by the SED dictatorship in the GDR are in many ways involved in the history of the persecution of their parents. 20 years after the “Wende” the reconstruction of parental distress is distinguished by a high degree of protracted non - determinability. The descendants own traumatic experiences often join fragmented, unsettling memory segments of the parental generation. Confusing persecution practices of the Stasi have often caused grave personal uncertainties and as a consequence, have spread doubts until today about the reliability of autobiographical memories. Internal decision making and processing while living under the conditions of a dictatorship - which included how to deal with their own children, and the external influences of the persecuted parental generation are, from the viewpoint of the descendants, difficult to distinguish from each other. A successful EMDR treatment is - in case of the emotional distress of the descendants of political traumatised people - connected to a process of resolving perplex memory contents. Perpetrator-victim-collusions, which are often found in affected families, add to a concatenation of cumulative traumatic events. The non - determinability in the reconstruction of traumatic experiences cause the formation of traumatic complexes which negatively influence future events in the life of the descendants. Based on interview details of a qualitative study with descendants of victims of political persecution by the SED dictatorship in which the possibilities of handling the more difficult determination of initial traumatic events are discussed. By means of this the author clarifies the central themes of a disconcerting reconstruction of the victim’s parental and own biography.

Conference

English

Stephan Trobisch-Lutge

Trobisch-Lutge, S. (2010, July). "I am a consequential damage of detention" - Protreacted non-determinability in the reconstruction of traumatic experiences in the descendants of victims of political persecution byt the SED dictatorship in the GDR. Symposium (Shamin Karim, Chair) conducted at the 1st EMDR Asia Conference, Bali, Indonesia