‘Traumatic invalidation piles on to the epigenetic and generational trauma that Jews have…’

Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 1-28-2025, by Miri Bar-Halperna, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and Jaclyn Wolfman,  Village Psychology, Belmont, MA
Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
[NOTE that linked references in the following Benicia Independent text do not work. For linked references, see the original article in the Journal.]

Abstract
The October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel by the Hamas terrorist organization triggered profound trauma within the Jewish community, not only stemming from the events themselves but also from the response of others in the aftermath. Rather than being met with compassion and care, many individuals instead encountered emotional neglect, criticism, blame, and even outright denial of their pain. These responses occurred on individual, institutional, and societal levels. Drawing from Harned’s (2022) conceptualization of traumatic invalidation, this paper applies this framework to understand the psychological impact of the rise in antisemitism on the Jewish community. Traumatic invalidation, as defined by Linehan (2015), involves chronic or extreme denial of an individual’s significant private experiences, characteristics, or reactions, often by influential figures or groups upon whom the individual relies. Such invalidation can result in profound shifts in self-perception, emotional regulation, and worldview. This paper aims to shed light on the dynamics of traumatic invalidation within the Jewish community post October 7, provide recommendations for trauma-informed and culturally sensitive interventions, and discuss implications for future research.

Keywords
Traumatic invalidation, Jewish community, culturally sensitive therapy, trauma therapy, intergenerational trauma, minority trauma, war and terrorism, Antisemitism

Invalidating behaviors can take many forms but share a common feature of attacking the person’s sense of self and personal validity by communicating that they are bad, wrong, unacceptable, and unwanted. – Melanie Harned, Treating Trauma in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (2022)

As trauma therapists, our thoughts quickly turned to our clients and how they would be impacted after October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,200 civilians in Israel and kidnapped 240 more. The terrorists slaughtered entire families, raped women, murdered babies and the elderly, and as of this writing continue to hold men, women, and children hostage in Gaza. This was the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has led to destruction, death, and a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip (AFP & Times of Israel staff, 2023; Boxerman, 2023; Liebermann, 2023; Vinograd & Kershner, 2023).

Jewish communities around the world were grief-stricken, outraged, heartbroken, and afraid (Russell et al., 2023). It was the deadliest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust (Lee & Madhani, 2023). Some of our clients were mourning loved ones and some were hearing about friends of friends who were kidnapped, murdered, or survived. Some were seeing the young people in their families go off to war. Many who considered Israel to be the one place in the world where they could live safely had that belief shaken. Jews all over the world were reminded of the traumas of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents (Abrams & Armeni, 2023).

What we found was that in addition to their responses to the clearly traumatic events of murder, rape, and kidnapping, our Jewish clients—and our Jewish colleagues—were talking about something else distressing that was happening that was sometimes difficult to name and understand. It had to do with the reactions after October 7 from friends, colleagues, and larger organizations. Rather than being met with compassion and care, many were instead met with a stunning mix of silence, blaming, excluding, and even outright denying the atrocities of October 7 along with any emotional pain stemming from them.

In trauma therapy, there is a term for this type of response from others-traumatic invalidation. “Traumatic invalidation is extreme or repetitive invalidation of individuals’ significant private experiences, characteristics identified as important aspects of themselves, or reactions to themselves or to the world … .Typically, traumatic invalidation comes from a very important person, group, or authority” and “leads to psychological exclusion or perception of the individual as an outsider” (Linehan, 2015, p. 304). According to Bohus et al. (2013), traumatic invalidation is a social trauma that can create an existential crisis, since human beings cannot survive without our group. This means that when someone is threatened with being rejected by the group, they might feel that it is a life and death situation. Social invalidation then means that the basic principle of social survival is questioned.

While minor forms of invalidation occur frequently within relationships and can usually be coped with adaptively, when invalidation is extreme and/or chronic, it can be a risk factor for the development of problems in emotional, interpersonal, and behavioral domains. Specifically, invalidation is a risk factor for emotion dysregulation, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal sensitivity and dysfunction (Selby et al., 2008; Yap et al., 2008). In some situations, the psychological consequences of chronic traumatic invalidation can be very painful and long-lasting. In fact, individuals who experience traumatic invalidation may develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSD), including intrusion symptoms, avoidance, changes in cognition and mood, dissociation, and changes in emotional arousal and behavioral reactivity (Hong & Lishner, 2016; Hong et al., 2011; Ullman & Filipas, 2001). Research indicates that traumatic invalidation, such as emotional or psychological abuse, can have just as much—or even more—of a negative impact on mental health as other events that do meet the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for a traumatic event such as threat of death or serious injury (American Psychiatric Association, 2022; Mechanic et al., 2008; Spinazzola et al., 2014).

Furthermore, minority stressors, such as prejudice, discrimination, and rejection related to one’s identity, can be conceptualized not only as an invalidation of that individual’s social characteristics but also as an invalidation of their social and material needs. Research has demonstrated that minority stress may increase the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other emotional disorders (Cardona et al., 2022; Jeevanba et al., 2024; Pieterse et al., 2010; Sibrava et al., 2019). Harned (2022) discussed the different sources of identity-based traumatic invalidation such as family of origin, important relationships (peers, partners, coworkers), institutions (school, healthcare systems), and culture (systemic racism, media). Harned (2022) further noted that identity-based traumatic invalidation can be a single event (direct experience such as getting called a dirty Zionist or someone tearing down your mezuzah, a parchment inscribed with religious texts and attached in a case to the doorpost of a Jewish house as a sign of faith, from your dorm room), vicarious exposure (hearing about or witnessing acts of antisemitism toward other people), and cumulative direct exposure (microaggressions, being excluded at work/school, and regularly being discriminated against).

…This excellent study is CONTINUED, WITH LINKS AND FOOTNOTES… in JOURNAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT