It is a family tree made from memory and based on recollections, on which important events in family life are written. Not only names, dates of birth, deaths, marriages, divorces, remarriages and separations, but also levels of education, expatriates, changes in life and location, who grew up under the same roof and ate from the same plate, the actual number of children who were raised by an aunt, uncle, grandparents and therefore not by their real parents, but also emotional bonds and traumas, in order to compose a picture that, once completed, produces a liberating emotional shock.
A tree made of memory
Yes, the genossociogram is made of memory.
And the individual, as the essence of the family system, has access to all this information. They have the reality of the present and a reality that comes from another place: the past.
But they must then verify whether what has been narrated really happened, because memory is fallible and confuses the facts.
Let me give an example:
I say that my favourite uncle died in July 1980 and I discover that this date is that of a cousin’s wedding, during which a family scandal occurred, and I also discover that this date corresponds to the birth of an important person in the family, but four generations earlier; or it is the date of birth of a stillborn brother, etc.
Releasing an emotion
The genossociogram releases an emotion in the people who do it. It is the emotion of remembrance, which is the opposite of what one would feel if one were simply examining one’s family history.
For example, in a museum, one might say: Look at my grandfather, he was shot during the war. Look at my grandmother, they shaved her hair in the concentration camp, and one says this without emotion.
It is not a visit to a museum or personal work without implications.
Therefore, simply recounting facts because I have researched them has no therapeutic or liberating value.
Therefore, the evolutionary perspective of the genosociogram is: the reinterpretation of one’s family history, leading to a reappropriation of significant elements and a renewed focus on historical memory, which can enable the individual to become aware and to develop a better life plan for themselves, based on ALL the elements acquired.
The genossociogram, in fact, offers the possibility of reviving one’s past, arousing emotions, bringing out elements that have been repressed or remain in the context of relationships with the family of origin, allowing the discovery and redefinition of key events and the bonds that connect them.
Objectives of the genossociogram
- To recount one’s life and clearly show the history of the nuclear family and family of origin, emphasising the relationships between the different people who make it up;
- to discover that the world did not begin with our parents, but that they too are the product of a world that began long before them, i.e. to place oneself in a transgenerational perspective and search for one’s roots and identity;
- highlighting the processes of transgenerational transmission and the phenomena of transgenerational repetition, such as invisible family loyalties, family secrets and myths, synchronicities, birthday syndromes, genealogical programmes, Gisant syndromes, class neuroses, strong words, etc.
- understand the effects of unresolved grief, the effects of unspoken words and secrets, understand a situation such as that of the replacement child, highlight the work of a ghost and a crypt in the family unconscious;
- highlighting the different family functions and the rules that underlie them, in order to understand the transactional modalities at play in the family.
The use of the genossociogram
- Applicable especially in psychotherapy, the genosociogram is also used in the training of health and helping professionals.
- the study of the genossociogram and psychogenealogy as a combination of genealogy and psychology is important for work in Family Constellations; Family Sculpture, Transgenerational Psychodrama, studies on family myths and an excellent working tool for systemic family therapists;
- It can also be an institutional tool, used, for example, in industry, hospitals and even schools.
- The genosociogram is, ultimately, a tool for getting to know oneself, one’s family and invisible family repetitions.
** É melhor fazer o estudo do seu genossociograma acompanhado por um psicoterapeuta que tenha um bom conhecimento a respeito desse assunto.
Jaqueline Cássia de Oliveira Psicoterapeuta Familiar Sistêmica - Brasil Psicogenealogia - Itália