Transmission of traumatic experiences in the families of war survivors from Bosnia and Herzegovina

1 The idea of transmitting some traumatic knowledge of the past persists in Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle as the idea of transmitting reminiscences of a past ruled by “the pleasure principle” but replaced by the present which is subjected to “the reality principle” (Freud, 1920). The loss of a world governed by immediate gratification is felt as particularly traumatic in the context of a highly demanding reality which requires gratification deferral. However, the idea of the collective dimension of trauma starts to interest social scientists after the First World War and expands with the onset of the Second World War. two world wars, the war in Vietnam, the riots in Sri Lanka, and other instances of mass violence, has contributed to a better understanding of trauma transmission. Yet, the topic has remained underresearched because in contrast to other war-related issues it requires a long and in-depth work with the whole family touching upon the most intimate aspects of the parent-child interaction. Apart from this general problem, the post-war post-Yugoslav milieu has been primarily examined from political, historical or ethnographic perspective, somehow failing to take into account the in-depth and independent of ethnic or religious background psycho-social phenomena. This paper is trying to fill in the above mentioned gap while considering the specific cultural context of Western Balkans. UDK: 325.254-053.2:159.97](497.6) Prethodno priopćenje Primljeno: 25. rujna 2012.