Have you ever read a book or heard a story of an unusually cruel or violent person and wonder what makes them capable of such atrocities? A sound hypothesis would be that the person had a very difficult and painful childhood, suffering abuses beyond normal coping mechanisms. But, new discoveries suggest that stress and trauma can be passed from one generation to subsequent generations through RNA and DNA. Making humans truly an amalgam of their ancestors. To discover the impact our family of origin has on our cellular makeup and disposition, Positive Psychology Podcast Host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with two doctors who have a unique history about their fascinating work and the application of it to the healing and recovery process. Dr. Paul Valent specializes in the harm people inflict on one another and why they do it. He is the author of Heart of Violence: Why People Harm Each Other which he discusses in detail. Dr. Thomas Verny is a clinical psychiatrist who has made strides in the discovery of cellular memory and how stress affects generations. His book, The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies investigates the storage of memories outside the brain, the impact of organ transplants, and epigenetics.

About Lisa’s guests: 

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Dr. Paul Valent survived the Holocaust in Hungary, and in 1949 he and his parents moved to Australia. Dr. Valent studied medicine in Melbourne, then psychiatry in London. A psychiatrist and psychotherapist for 35 years, he co-founded the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Child Survivors of the Holocaust group in Melbourne, Australia. He now devotes himself to writing.

Thomas R. Verny is a clinical psychiatrist and the author of eight books, including The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, which was published in 27 countries and 47 scientific papers. He has previously taught at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, York University (Toronto), and St. Mary’s University. His most recent book is The Embodied Mind, Pegasus, New York. 

This episode of Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio is sponsored by: 

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