A controlled double-blind study on children of Holocaust survivors

Abstract

The effects of the Holocaust on the offspring of survivors have remained unclear in discussions between clinicians, clinical researchers and empirical researchers. The authors report on a controlled double-blind study designed to test these effects using the sensitivity of clinicians to intrapsychic constellations and processes. The all female sample was randomly selected from several Jerusalem neighborhoods. The index subjects (n = 31), born between 1946 and 1960, had at least one parent (mother) who suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazi regime during WWII. The controls (N = 31), matched for age, educational status and birth order, were born to parents who had not lived under the occupation of the Nazi regime and had not suffered losses of close relatives in WWII. In-depth double-blind interviews, conducted by experienced psychodynamic psychotherapists, focused on personality characteristics without questioning individual development. The only measure used was a 48-item questionnaire completed by the therapists at the end of the interview. The study showed that daughters of Holocaust survivors are characterized by more problems in the realm of separation individuation issues. It also confirmed previous findings that the offspring of Holocaust survivors do not show more psychopathology than the general population.