#something about generational trauma as a codified trope
i think my one complaint with the whole generational trauma zeitgeist - or making it into this all-encompassing “thing” that social relationships suffers from more than anything - is that it just feels like a narrower, more limitedversion of sociological storytelling.
whereas sociological storytelling has characters that respond to every sphere of influence around them - families, yes, but also wider society, culture, class, race, region, and all the other broad social learning institutions within a culture such as the education system, religion, traditions, etc etc.
generational trauma is a subcategory of sorts, maybe, and its not bad to acknowledge subcategories exist! at least its an attempt for people to understand cause-and-effect… but it is not everything. and when people don’t focus as much on other aspects, you can end up thinking in this individualistic way that you can either “choose” to break the chain or not and that will be your value as a person.
that’s not how it works. it prerequisites being aware of these things in order to “make” that choice (what is a choice, really? does it descent from the gods or are you at every moment responding to your environment the way you think is right?) and presupposes that one does have that free will so long as one is aware of one (1) type of social influence.
the problem often becomes whatever character that “started” this cycle of abuse or the “first round” of generational trauma. because without acknowledging these other spheres of influence, you just end up dehumanizing them and dismissing how society impacted them in turn. they just become “the source.” if generational trauma is “all you got” as both cause and effect, then you have a flat character who just exists to have your problems (and your parents, who are allowed to be sympathetic onlybecause of the trauma they themselves suffered) problems blamed on.
i think its important to acknowledge other spheres of influence over people than their immediately families… or rather, that its not just their families or the specific way history repeats itself in their immediate social circle that matters.
the good news is that a lot of generational trauma stories understand this. there is a cause-and-effect to the parent or grandparent that supposedly “started” the cycle and that they were the product of their own environment and social circumstances… but in social media, not so much. if you yourself can’t point to a higher “bad guy” further up than you in the chain, sorry, no sympathy for you.
