In Psychogenealogy, working with the genossociogram – a family tree annotated with dates and stories from at least three generations – allows us to write and narrate the family history, see the inconsistencies that may hide a secret, and recurring dates or names that show repetitions in family history, often indicating the presence of unresolved grief, replacement babies, undisclosed traumas, etc.
All these elements, emerging from the graphic representation of the psychogenealogical tree or through other instruments such as metaphorical genogram, photographic genogram, social atom, dream content, systemic constellations, allow us to formulate hypotheses about what may have happened in that family system, what undisclosed facts – called untold stories in the first generation and secrets in subsequent generations – that then became “unmentionable” and may have imprisoned their descendants.
There are secrets in all families, but some condition the lives of individuals and their descendants. The severity of their influence depends on many factors: the importance of the hidden fact, the suffering of those who hide (protect) it, and the extent of the disturbances generated in communication between members of the family nucleus. The secret isolates and divides the family system into two groups: those who know and those who do not, thus creating marginalisation and exclusion.
These problems do not only involve the children from whom something has been hidden, which may even have been done with the intention of protecting them, but the secret often also involves successive generations who inherit it, without being able to understand the difficulties their parents and grandparents experienced in order to keep it.
As French psychogenealogist Serge Tisseron says: “we become prisoners when we are not aware”.
It is important to understand that there are secrets and dramatic events in every family: “secrets are like a hot potato that is passed from hand to hand, burning the hands of every generation”. This repetition can be interrupted by finding the origin of the secret and seeking to perform symbolic acts that conclude this transmission.
When can we raise the hypothesis of a secret? When there is a lack of information about a branch of the family, when there are contradictions in the narrative, when specific questions are asked of a family member who must respond, and discomfort and evasive answers are manifested.
In addition, we can assume that there is a secret when there are repetitions of events over several generations and when there are tragedies and madness (psychoses).
Like detectives in detective novels, we must investigate every possible clue: first and foremost, the family myth, which very often hides a shameful fact that must be concealed at all costs. But unlike the “modormo” of detective films, the family myth can only be perceived through the rituals and particular customs of the family.
Françoise Dolto said that it takes three generations of family silence and non-communication to create a psychotic child.
Psychogenealogy, through its work of transgenerational analysis of family experiences, the “sense project” or genealogical programme that is the unconscious task assigned to the baby at birth, helps to shed light on secrets and make them less harmful.
Neuroscience explains that the front part of the brain is divided into the left hemisphere, the seat of digital, analytical, logical thinking, and the right hemisphere, which coordinates analogical thinking, intuition, and emotions. As is well known, when the two hemispheres work together, growth and evolution occur.
Therefore, it is important to analyse genealogical history through the genossociogram, which is a rational logical operation, but it is necessary to use resources that allow us to communicate with the unconscious (right hemisphere) through symbols, metaphors, and analogies, which are specialities of the creative, emotional, and intuitive part of our brain.
Family Constellations are also a great tool for working with the enormous reserve of possibilities and creativity that “jump” from the collective and family unconscious: “putting on stage” family dynamics favours the emergence of emotions, memories and experiences lived by our ancestors.
After experimenting with and studying Transgenerationality in an approach to Systemic Family Therapy, Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger’s Psychogenealogy, Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations, and James Hillman’s Archetypal Psychology, I understood that these approaches are integrated and when used together can greatly enhance the work of transgenerationality and family secrets. I named this practice of transgenerational therapy APPLIED SYSTEMIC PSYCHOGENEALOGY.
PSICOGENEALOGIA SISTÊMICA APLICADA
Prática transgeracional por Jaqueline Cássia de Oliveira
Psicóloga - CRP 04/7521
Psicoterapeuta Familiar Sistêmica (Brasil)
Psicogenealogista (Itália)