SCARS OF WAR FOR CENTURIES: why grandchildren fear the same things their grandmothers did

Strategic communications expert

SCARS OF WAR FOR CENTURIES: why grandchildren fear the same things their grandmothers did

Photo by Trude Jonsson Stangel on Unsplash

Scars of war endure for centuries. Researchers studying the social consequences of mass trauma emphasize that it cannot be understood without considering the history, traditions, and cultural context of the affected communities. In an article published in the scientific journal Nature, they call for a reconsideration of our understanding of collective trauma.

VICTIMS OF TERROR ATTACKS HAVE «DIFFERENT» CHILDREN

n recent years, wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, Sudan, and other «hot spots» around the world have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Last year, the UN Refugee Agency reported that in the first half of 2024, violence and conflict forced more than 122 million people to flee their homes. The dynamics of these processes show that the number of people affected by collective trauma is increasing year by year. Emotional scars profoundly affect health, interpersonal relationships, and life prospects, not only for those who experienced them directly.

Future generations also become victims. When the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre occurred on September 11, 2001, pregnant women were present in and around the buildings. Examining their health, doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When these women gave birth, scientists studied the stress-hormone profiles of their infants. It turned out that they differed significantly from the profiles of mothers who did not suffer from PTSD — and from those of their babies.

GRANDCHILDREN FEAR THE SAME THINGS THEIR GRANDPARENTS DID

The trauma experienced by previous generations always influences the behavior of those that follow. For example, it is known that during World War II, the U.S. government organized special camps where American citizens of Japanese descent were held. The United States was at war with Japan, and all ethnic Japanese were viewed as a potential threat to national security. Over time, researchers found that not only the children, but even the grandchildren of those detainees retained a certain «aftertaste». The experiences of their ancestors became the reason for an extremely low level of trust in the U.S. government among them. Subconsciously, they fear that history may repeat itself and that they, too, could become victims of mistreatment just as their grandparents once were. Even by analogy with this example, we can understand that the collective trauma caused by Russian aggression will continue to echo painfully through several future generations of Ukrainians.

THE TRAUMA OF THE HOLOCAUST IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Studying the effects of collective trauma, scientists aim to help individuals and entire communities find paths toward healing. However, they are forced to acknowledge that traumatic experience is highly diverse, and one type is far from always comparable to another. For instance, an analysis of more than 500 studies shows that the experience of Holocaust survivors cannot be accurately equated with that of people who endured other mass traumas — especially when it concerns representatives of cultures outside Europe. Yet research often ignores this cultural context, focusing instead on analysing individual symptoms passed down through generations.

However, the crucial role that contexts play in shaping collective trauma is becoming increasingly evident. Historical trauma has made Japanese American communities more sensitive to the injustices faced by other groups. The ancestors of Armenians living in Greece and Cyprus were subjected to genocide during the First World War — an experience that strengthened communal bonds and increased solidarity with other persecuted peoples. In other words, trauma can result in more developed empathy on a collective level.

DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF TRAUMA

To better understand the traumatic experience inherited across generations, scientists propose distinguishing between the concepts of «intergenerational trauma» and «historical trauma». The first term was introduced back in the 1960s, when research focused primarily on psychiatric symptoms in the children of Holocaust survivors. The second term emerged in the 1990s, when scholars began actively studying various Indigenous peoples who had suffered for centuries from colonialism, systemic violence, and dispossession.

Initially, the study of historical trauma centred on individuals, families, and communities of Indigenous peoples in North America. Later, these approaches began to be applied to other historically marginalised communities — for example, the descendants of enslaved Africans and various groups of immigrants. It turned out that histories of oppression form the basis of structural factors underlying modern inequalities in healthcare.

STORIES THAT ARE PASSED DOWN

«Collective trauma» is yet another term, distinct from the previous two. It is used in social psychology and refers to psychological reactions to a catastrophic event. In the social sciences, however, scholars often prefer to speak of cultural trauma when examining how and why an event becomes culturally and socially defined as traumatic. These terms describe interconnected phenomena. Nevertheless, they are not interchangeable — although, unfortunately, they are often used without clear distinction, making it harder to understand and mitigate the consequences of trauma.

The trauma of a large community and the trauma of an individual are not the same. For example, between 1975 and 1979, Cambodians endured the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge. Each survivor may have had an individual experience of traumatic events such as physical violence or hunger, which increased the risk of psychological trauma symptoms. But there is also a broader context — the collective experience of genocide, the stories of atrocities and persecution passed down within communities to subsequent generations.

WHAT MATTERS IS WHO KILLS AND HOW

For a child who has not adapted to the loss of a parent, unresolved grief can increase the likelihood of traumatic consequences. If a loved one was killed as a result of systematic violence by the state or by an organised criminal group, these consequences become even more severe. To help a child, it is important to recognise their trauma. But it is equally important to understand how the traumatic environment emerged — in what context the trauma became possible. This is necessary not only for socio-historical analysis, but also for helping victims overcome the long-term effects of trauma, including high levels of poverty, cardiovascular disease, and suicide.

A SCALE OF LOSS

Tools developed to assess trauma in one population group are not necessarily applicable to others. However, in some cases, they can be adapted to different contexts. For example, for Indigenous peoples of North America, researchers created a «historical loss scale» to evaluate symptoms of depression and suicide risk and to understand how these symptoms relate to perceptions of historical loss of land and culture.

At first, this scale contained context-specific questions about the relocation of Native peoples to reservations and the loss of trust in the government due to broken treaties. But later it was successfully adapted for refugees from Southeast Asia who were fleeing war and genocide. Researchers worked directly with leaders and members of Cambodian and Laotian communities to adjust the scale and more accurately assess perceived losses related to migration and resettlement.

THE CULTURE OF SILENCE

A good example of the value of such qualitative approaches can be found in communities where a «culture of silence» exists — where people are not inclined to discuss past traumas. For a long time, scholars assumed that silence implied «active forgetting,» a way of trying to cope with trauma and move on. But more in-depth research on Kurdish refugee families showed that silence can also be an active communication strategy.

It is a kind of «memory without words». This type of remembering allows parents and children to mutually protect one another from reawakening past wounds, creating new meanings out of memories of trauma and loss. This means that in certain contexts, the talk-based therapies characteristic of European traditions may be counterproductive.

THE SPECIFICS OF UKRAINIAN TRAUMA

By studying communication patterns and oral traditions in non-Western cultures, we can gain insights that are not always documented in ways familiar to Western research frameworks. Misinterpreting the past risks losing sight of deeper truths that shape the experience of collective trauma — an experience to which different communities are unequally exposed. This means that when it comes to addressing the psychological consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, specialists will need to adapt their methods to local contexts. Ukrainian trauma may have its own distinct, uniquely Ukrainian features.

Original research: