Family therapy with children of concentration camp survivors

The children of Holocaust survivors who seek psychiatric care, regardless of the origins of the emotional disturbance, invariably suffer as well from the interwoven parental experience. The individual treatment of such children is singularly unsuccessful and this failure is reflected in the literature. In order to understand and deal with the connections contributing to psychopathology in survivor families, the author suggests the inclusion of family wherever possible. The children, now in their late teens to mid-thirties, may resist family therapy out of a need to individuate, whereas the parents may fear being blamed or having old wounds re-opened. In spite of a variety of resistances, it is possible in most instances to do at least a family assessment. Once family has been involved, a variety of techniques and interventions can assist the therapist with the identified patient. The two cases presented illustrate the need to know the patient's family and solicit their co-operation in therapy complicated by Holocaust-derived issues.