Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Religious Studies

Major Professor

Tori Lockler, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jay Michaels, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Michael DeJonge, Ph.D.

Committee Member

James Cavendish, Ph.D.

Keywords

Generational Trauma, Genocide, Jewish Studies, Religion, Transference

Abstract

When comparing ADHD and Complex-PTSD, these two disorders share many overlapping features in both areas of the brain that are affected and the behavioral aspects due to deficits in certain brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex. It is due to this similarity that I predict that c-PTSD is the precursor to the development of ADHD in later generations. Through epigenetic changes that are consistent with c-PTSD diagnosis, these changes to the brain are then passed down the generational line. When this is combined with trauma transference and generational trauma, it creates a situation where both the behaviors inform how the brain should develop and how brain development informs behavior. By looking at Jewish Holocaust survivors and their families, we can see how generational trauma affects the entire generational line. With ADHD being a highly hereditary neurodevelopmental disorder that can be developed in high stress situations, how epigenetic changes can be passed down generational lines, and how trauma transference creates generational trauma within a family, there is evidence to suggest that c-PTSD could create the environment for ADHD to develop in later generations. I propose that though reviewing at the literature on ADHD, c-PTSD, trauma transference, and generational trauma, it can be inferred how c-PTSD can lead to ADHD in later generations. I propose that by the fourth-generation of Holocaust trauma survivors, this generational trauma may develop as ADHD as a result of c-PTSD brain changes and behaviors getting passed down the genetic line.

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