The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives

(Paperback)

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The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives is a timely addition to the literature on inter- and transgenerational trauma. The book addresses black ancestral trauma passed down the generations, highlighting the ongoing impact on black lives.

Aileen Alleyne explores the unheeded dimensions of individual and collective identity trauma, paying particular attention to the themes and concepts of identity shame, black identity wounding and cultural enmeshment.

The author expands on her striking concept, the 'internal oppressor', that inhibits self-belief, full agency and potential. She reworks the psychoanalytic concept of hauntings, separating it from Freuds interpretation as unconscious repression, and presents it as a living and conscious element of the black trauma burden. To break the cycle of generational trauma, Alleyne suggests an active process of separation from archaic attachments, and engagement in intentional modes of transformation.

Alleyne makes use of her own experiences throughout, alongside therapeutic suggestions, approaches and theoretical handles for steadying the practitioner in the consulting room. The book weaves the personal, historical, socio-political and theoretical, and includes countless observational examples, clinical vignettes and case material.

The Burden of Heritageoffers effective tools to practitioners who work therapeutically with black and minority ethnic clients, and highlights ways to strengthen critical enquiry for deeper conceptual and theoretical understanding of generational trauma.

Reviews

A gripping epic about loss, longing, and the partially
submerged worlds of black trauma . . . a map of hope in dire times.

-
Dr.
Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My
Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home

One of the most ground-breaking books on the vital subject of
intergenerational trauma. This truly heartening and gripping contribution to
modern psychology offers many bold and essential insights into the nature of
global suffering and hatred. We all have much to learn from the author's
wisdom, regardless of the colour of our skin.

-
Professor
Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, London

A scholarly gift to individuals engaged in doing the healing
work of intergenerational and transgenerational trauma . . . Dr. Alleyne's book
should be required reading for every clinician seeking to better understand
Black psychology . . . The Burden of Heritage is a creative work that lovingly
explores, teaches, and psychologically deepens who we are, and who we can
become in terms of healing individual and cultural group racial trauma.

Fanny Brewster, Ph.D., MFA, author of The
Racial Complex: A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race

Author Bio

Dr AileenAlleyneis a UKCP registered psychodynamic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and organisational consultant in private practice. She is a visiting lecturer at training institutions and a consultant on race andculturaldiversity in organisations, such as the NHS, Social Services, Education, and the Police Services. Her clinical research examining black workers experiences in three UK statutory bodies, namely, the NHS, Education and Social Services, makes a significant contribution to the discourse on racism as a living trauma. Highlighting the concept of the internal oppressor, her work offers ways of deepening understanding of black psychological reactions to the wounding impact of racism. She is the authorof several book chapters and journal papers exploring themes onblack/white dynamics, shame and identity wounding, and working with issues ofDifference and Diversity in the workplace.