Emotional Inheritance

A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma

By: Galit Atlas

Narrated by: Galit Atlas

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning psychoanalyst Dr. Galit Atlas draws on her patients' stories—and her own life experiences—to shed light on how generational trauma affects our lives in this "intimate, textured, compassionate" book (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness).

The people we love and those who raised us live inside us; we experience their emotional pain, we dream their memories, and these things shape our lives in ways we don’t always recognize. Emotional Inheritance is about family secrets that keep us from living to our full potential, create gaps between what we want for ourselves and what we are able to have, and haunt us like ghosts.

In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance” we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.

©2022 Galit Atlas (P)2022 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

“An intimate, textured, and compassionate exploration of intergenerational trauma, how it is carried and transmitted within families, and how it can be skillfully invited in, recognized, attenuated, and perhaps resolved through the therapeutic relationship, metabolizing what has hitherto not been named or nameable.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness)

“Beautiful, artistic, and elegant. Dr. Atlas skillfully uses stories from her practice to explore the archeology of transgenerational trauma. The descriptions of the therapeutic process pull you in; you come to know both patient and therapist. In doing so, you cannot help but reflect on your own journey. Emotional Inheritance is a gem for anyone, but it is an essential read for those seeking to understand trauma, therapy, and the healing process.” (Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, coauthor (with Oprah Winfrey) of the number one New York Times best seller What Happened to You?)

"Dr. Atlas writes with profound living compassion for those who have carried, in their bodies, minds, hearts, spirits and souls, the most often unspoken and secret traumas of their own hurt elders. As a first-generation American child growing up in my tough family of war refugees, deportees - the ethnically cleansed, struggling immigrants, I humbly assert that I know about generational traumas in depth. I recognize Dr. Atlas as one who writes in full knowing detail - about what I call in my work, ‘the generational wound." (Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves)

Great!

So interesting and personal.
Definitely a must!
A lot to research to do in the family's stories.

My favorite

I usually don’t like author reading book. But I love this audio book. Really help to understand family problem.

Important Perspective on Family Trauma

First off the topic of this book is so important - understanding the unspoken and secretive nature of inherited family patterns and trauma. The book centers around a series of stories about uncovering the hidden family histories that brought several clients to Dr. Atlas’s office. They are definitely rich and illuminating stories that helped me see patterns in my own family.
Ultimately I was listening to this book to try to get more perspective on my own family history. I wanted to learn how people recover from multi generational trauma. Alas, except the implied solution of finding a therapist fluent in this field, the book offers little to guide people. It was a great listen but left me wondering, “now what?”.

A brilliant book

I loved the way Dr Atlas illustrated different psychpanalytical theories and wove them through the narratives of her patients and herself. The book is easy to read and heavy to digest.

Loved this.

Loved it, wanted more when it was over. Loved the narration, by whom is also the author. So good.

very insightful

outstanding. I would recommend to anyone in a self healing journey. it helps connecting dots from past and present

Informative and enjoyable

A helpful experience of understanding how we internalize the traumas of our ancestors and culture even when we have no cognitive memory or know of them. The author’s delivery also provides a soothing and pleasant experience.

Listen on 1.3x speed and it’s good

I thought this book would be about epigenetics, and it barely touches on that, which was fine for me. It’s more about how older generations’ traumas create painful family cultures and how uncovering the roots of the disfunction can be healing. Really interesting examples are fleshed out.
This was the first time I had to speed up a book, but that Audible functionality works great.

Wow! A must read!

This was an excellent book, Galit’s performance is phenomenal! There is so much wisdom in each story. I gained a lot of self insight while listening. In full disclosure, there are times I had to take breaks to reorient myself emotionally before continuing. However, the amount of discovery in these pages I’m sure is enough to spark personal shifts within your own story and understanding.

Completely extraordinary book, I will be on the look out for more works by Galit!

Excellent

Everything about this book was Excellent, from the stories to the dramatic narration that keeps you engaged.