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The term "[[cultural]] transmission" does not appear in Sigmund [[Freud]]'s [[work]], but the [[idea]] is implicit in such notions as <i>cultural heritage</i> and <i>phylogenetic inheritance</i>. Freud believed that the (since abandoned) [[biological]] precept, according to which "ontogenesis recapitulates phylogenesis," could be applied to [[human]] [[psychic]] [[development]]. The [[notion]] of cultural transmission refers to the possibility that the acquisitions of an [[individual]] or of a [[culture]] can be transmitted to descendents and [[form]] the basis of cultural development.
Freud addressed the topic for the first [[time]] in <i>[[Totem]] and [[Taboo]]</i> (1912-13a), where he advanced the hypothesis that the [[feeling]] of [[guilt]] over the [[murder]] of the [[primal]] [[father]] had persisted over the centuries and still affected generations that could [[know]] [[nothing]] directly [[about]] it.
In Freud's later works, the main [[mechanism]] of transmission was said to be [[identification]], which ensconced the lost [[object]] in the ego, as described in "[[Mourning]] and [[Melancholia]]" (1916-17g [1915]), and finally produced an alteration in the ego that gave rise to the [[superego]], as described in <i>The Ego and [[the Id]]</i> (1923b). In the <i>New Introductory Lectures</i> (1933 [1932]) Freud observed that the [[SuperEgo|superego ]] could be viewed as the outcome of successful identification with the parental [[agency]], and as the [[natural]] and legitimate heir to the [[Oedipus]] [[complex]]. As the bearer of [[tradition]], the superego was a [[true]] [[agent]] of cultural transmission from one generation to the next. In <i>[[Moses]] and [[Monotheism]]</i> (1939a [1934-38]) Freud returned to the idea of an archaic heritage and compared such inherited acquired characteristics to [[instincts]] in animals—an inheritance on par with [[symbolism]].
After Freud, the idea of phylogenetic transmission was seemingly relegated to the background, as an explanation of last resort, and the emphasis shifted toward a detailed and expanded study of identifications. The point of departure for this was Freud's remark in the <i>New Introductory Lectures</i>, in which he observed that the [[child]]'s superego was not formed in the [[image]] of the [[real]] or [[imaginary]] [[parents]], but instead modeled on the parents' superego. The main focus soon moved beyond direct parental and intergenerational identifications to more distant identifications, such as those with grandparents, ancestors, or [[mythical]] characters in [[family]] [[history]], who re-emerge amid the descendents as a kind of actualization of family [[prehistory]]. The theme of the intergenerational (or transgenerational) appears in psychotherapeutic work with families, [[children]], and adolescents, and sometimes gives the impression that this sphere of
observation is [[being]] invaded by the study of archaic identifications. The [[other]] area where this theme comes to the fore is work with survivors or descendents of survivors of the [[Holocaust]] or other genocides, such as those committed by [[Latin]] American dictatorships. In these two areas, the importance of secrets, the unspoken, or ancestral crimes that the family has decided to bury, is much in evidence. In the [[case]] of the survivors of genocide, there is an attempt to make the [[traumatic]] [[situation]] [[disappear]] by denying it [[representation]]. But the buried [[material]] reappears two or [[three]] generations later, as a [[ghost]] that occupies the [[place]] where the concealment of important aspects of the ancestor's [[life]] has produced a "blank" in the descendant's [[psyche]]. In such cases, we [[speak]] of "[[alienating]] identifications." A [[particular]] aspect of this type of intergenerational transmission was studied by Nicolas [[Abraham]] and Maria Torok (1972/1978), in relation to the problem of grief.
==References==
<references/>
# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1912-13a). [[Totem and Taboo|Totem and taboo]]. SE, 13: 1-161.# ——. (1923b). [[The Ego and the Id|The ego and the id]]. SE, 19: 1-66.# ——. (1916-17g [1915]). [[Mourning and Melancholia|Mourning and melancholia]]. SE, 14: 237-258.
# ——. (1933a [1932]). New introductory lectures on [[psycho]]-[[analysis]]. SE, 22: 1-182.
# ——. (1939a [1934-38]). [[Moses and Monotheism|Moses and monotheism]]: Three essays. SE, 23: 139-207.
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