6. Orca Transference

So a traumatised Orca whale called Gladis is teaching her family to attack boats off the coast of Gibraltar.
Apparently she has had a bad experience with a boat, and is practicing holing boats/damaging the rudder with her family so that they in turn can protect themselves from the trauma boats.

Likewise humans. Parents carry their own trauma onto their children irrespective of its appropriateness. In other words it doesn’t matter what the trauma is: the parent will try to protect their own children from their own parent trauma. Some call this transference.

Trauma is necessary of human experience & development. We are all traumatised. It is our nature. We are set up for it. The only trauma we can work on is how we are taught to react to trauma. In a more sober moment Gladis might conclude that her trauma with a boat was a one off: no need to react by expecting the whole family to have their own boat trauma.

So animals pass on trauma to their own children. It seems it is the children’s responsibility to find out whether their parents trauma reaction is suitable to their own lives.

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