Family survival rules: messages to children

Abstract

The family is an open system that adapts to its external environment-society and is influenced by the social environment. The social environment in Russia has always been hostile to man and to the family. Collective traumatization creates a certain culture of society. The experience of overcoming trauma is formalized in the family in the form of survival messages. In the history of Russia, recently, there have been many traumatic events. They formed a traumocentric mentality in the whole society. This article describes the study of family rules of survival. The aim of the study is to compare the survival messages obtained from ancestors with the survival messages addressed to children. Studying family survival messages helps to understand the historical, psychological and cultural consequences of traumatization. In turn, this knowledge is necessary for the development of psychotherapeutic influences and social interventions that can help break the cycle of trauma. Subjects-women N 58, average age 38 years completed a questionnaire on the rules of survival received in their parents' families. In addition to questions about the rules of survival obtained, the questionnaire asked what kind of parting words they would give their children. The questionnaires were processed using content analysis. Unique and general survival messages related to the survival experience of parental families were identified. The rules of survival addressed to children differ from the rules received from ancestors. The main difference is that in the survival messages addressed to children there are rules about ethical behavior, the value of compassion, the value of education and profession, in contrast to the survival rules derived from ancestors that contain traumocentric attitudes.

Keywords

• family systems transgenerational trauma
• cultural trauma
• social trauma
• trauma centered mentality
• survival messages