The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree

"Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger's book offers a well-researched and persuasive approach to the problem of applying transgenerational analysis to individual cases. She emphasises the pragmatic dimension of her work, and makes a strong case for applying the basic method (group therapy with active work on individual genosociograms). This is a translation of a book written for a French audience, so the chronological chart at the back, which features the battle of Sedan, among others, as crucial dates, may be unhelpful for British readers interested in doing their own research. I did find some of Schutzenberger's examples a little excessive - she occasionally ventures into the realms of the uncanny and the bizarre, and is aware herself that this may cause problems for some -, but this is in aid of a fundamentally accessible and sympathetic approach. 'The Ancestor Syndrome' blends scholarly research with a populist approach. It made me want to try the genosociogram on my own family, and the results were surprising, to say the least. A winning combination of easy reading, intriguing anecdotes, and psychotherapy."
~ Written on 2000-01-27