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Updated: Oct 10, 2026

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[Early appearance and intergenerational transmission of maternal traumatization within the context of mother-infant

E Möhler1, F Resch

  • 1Abteilung für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie der Universität Heidelberg.

Praxis Der Kinderpsychologie Und Kinderpsychiatrie
|December 1, 2000
PubMed

At the age of 9 weeks a girl was presented by her mother because of intolerable hysterical attacks' triggering maternal impulses of abuse. Maternal perception of her infant was distorted to the extent that the mother was reexperiencing encounters with her own intrusive and traumatizing mother in the face of her screaming child. She also perceived the infant's motor impulses as physical transgressions against herself and expressed intense anxieties about her daughter's future aggressive potential. The infant was viewed by her mother as extraordinarily and dangerously greedy. Even neutral infantile vocalizations were perceived as manipulating and sadistic. She tried to ward off these anxieties by employing a rigid scheme of rules and obsessively controlling the father's and grandmother's interaction with the child. The mother feared to be overwhelmed by the infant's needs if she'd yield to them in a flexible way. A background of early neglect and trauma experienced by the mother is illustrated considering recent literature about early intergenerational transmission of traumatic experiences in order to demonstrate treatment modalities in view of protective and risk factors.

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