Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2006, Page 14
Likewise, in an environment such as certain polygamist Mormon groups (e.g., the
Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS), where mothers are required to have a child per
year, resulting in litters of children, mothers may not be able to provide the one-on-one
dyadic relationship necessary for optimal brain development. When parents‘ roles are
hijacked by the leader who regulates his/her own affect by manipulating, controlling, and
often abusing his/her followers, parents are likely to displace their frustration/anger onto
the more vulnerable members of the community, the children. This may have been the case
with Lisa Woznick‘s mother who is described as irrationally abusive:
―She‘d lash out at me, screaming, and attack me with our shag carpet rake—
often with no provocation. She‘d beat me with it, or whatever else she could
get her hands on, for my purported transgressions, or any other reason she
used to justify her abusive behaviors. She slammed me into the walls at
times for getting in her way, even though I was just playing silently in our
den or living room.‖ (Woznick, 2006, p. 2)
Whitsett and Kent (2003), Ayella (1998), Stein (1997) and others have described the
systematic destruction of the mother-child bond. In God’s Brothel Andrea Moore-Emmett
(2004) describes sister-wives who often take their frustrations out on the numerous children
in their care. Dysregulated themselves, the parents are unable to provide the calm,
consistent, nurturing environment a developing brain requires. Additionally, in an
environment lacking in stimulation, where education is prohibited and extracurricular
activities denied, the brain cannot develop robust synaptic connections. The primitive
amygdala impulses do not get mediated by the more evolved prefrontal cortex. The result is
that raw emotions are not metabolized or clarified by thinking, and thoughts are not given
emotional significance. Thus do the various forms of child maltreatment pass on
intergenerationally. The memory traces of interactions with dysregulated others are laid
down in implicit memory banks and get reactivated in subsequent attachment situations,
that is, with their own children. And so it is that the consequences of child maltreatment
also get passed from generation to generation.
As M. Teicher (2002) puts it:
Society reaps what it sows in the way it nurtures its children. Stress sculpts
the brain to exhibit various antisocial, though adaptive, behaviors. Whether it
comes in the form of physical, emotional, or sexual trauma or through
exposure to warfare, famine, or pestilence, stress can … permanently wire a
child‘s brain to cope with a malevolent world. Through this chain of events,
violence and abuse pass from generation to generation as well as from one
society to the next. (75)
The good news is that the brain remains plastic throughout life, and new neural networks
can be formed in the context of a nurturing, empathically attuned environment.
Psychotherapy and/or a secure relationship can override the earlier traumatic experiences,
healing and reshaping the brain.
Notes
i Very strong implicit memories were first called flashbulb memories by Brown and Kulik in 1977,
and the term has stuck (as cited in van der Kolk, et al, 1996). The classic example usually given is
that almost everyone in this country has a flashbulb memory for where they were when they heard
that President Kennedy had been shot. It is like a snapshot had been taken for that moment in time
and remains etched into memory (although the memory is not always completely accurate).
ii The concept of ―contingency‖ is similar to that of ―mirroring.‖ Contingency refers to the emotional
resonance and accurate understanding of the needs of the infant by the caregiver. For a more
extensive discussion, see Siegel and Hartzell (2003).
Likewise, in an environment such as certain polygamist Mormon groups (e.g., the
Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS), where mothers are required to have a child per
year, resulting in litters of children, mothers may not be able to provide the one-on-one
dyadic relationship necessary for optimal brain development. When parents‘ roles are
hijacked by the leader who regulates his/her own affect by manipulating, controlling, and
often abusing his/her followers, parents are likely to displace their frustration/anger onto
the more vulnerable members of the community, the children. This may have been the case
with Lisa Woznick‘s mother who is described as irrationally abusive:
―She‘d lash out at me, screaming, and attack me with our shag carpet rake—
often with no provocation. She‘d beat me with it, or whatever else she could
get her hands on, for my purported transgressions, or any other reason she
used to justify her abusive behaviors. She slammed me into the walls at
times for getting in her way, even though I was just playing silently in our
den or living room.‖ (Woznick, 2006, p. 2)
Whitsett and Kent (2003), Ayella (1998), Stein (1997) and others have described the
systematic destruction of the mother-child bond. In God’s Brothel Andrea Moore-Emmett
(2004) describes sister-wives who often take their frustrations out on the numerous children
in their care. Dysregulated themselves, the parents are unable to provide the calm,
consistent, nurturing environment a developing brain requires. Additionally, in an
environment lacking in stimulation, where education is prohibited and extracurricular
activities denied, the brain cannot develop robust synaptic connections. The primitive
amygdala impulses do not get mediated by the more evolved prefrontal cortex. The result is
that raw emotions are not metabolized or clarified by thinking, and thoughts are not given
emotional significance. Thus do the various forms of child maltreatment pass on
intergenerationally. The memory traces of interactions with dysregulated others are laid
down in implicit memory banks and get reactivated in subsequent attachment situations,
that is, with their own children. And so it is that the consequences of child maltreatment
also get passed from generation to generation.
As M. Teicher (2002) puts it:
Society reaps what it sows in the way it nurtures its children. Stress sculpts
the brain to exhibit various antisocial, though adaptive, behaviors. Whether it
comes in the form of physical, emotional, or sexual trauma or through
exposure to warfare, famine, or pestilence, stress can … permanently wire a
child‘s brain to cope with a malevolent world. Through this chain of events,
violence and abuse pass from generation to generation as well as from one
society to the next. (75)
The good news is that the brain remains plastic throughout life, and new neural networks
can be formed in the context of a nurturing, empathically attuned environment.
Psychotherapy and/or a secure relationship can override the earlier traumatic experiences,
healing and reshaping the brain.
Notes
i Very strong implicit memories were first called flashbulb memories by Brown and Kulik in 1977,
and the term has stuck (as cited in van der Kolk, et al, 1996). The classic example usually given is
that almost everyone in this country has a flashbulb memory for where they were when they heard
that President Kennedy had been shot. It is like a snapshot had been taken for that moment in time
and remains etched into memory (although the memory is not always completely accurate).
ii The concept of ―contingency‖ is similar to that of ―mirroring.‖ Contingency refers to the emotional
resonance and accurate understanding of the needs of the infant by the caregiver. For a more
extensive discussion, see Siegel and Hartzell (2003).
