Self-abandonment – where ancestral and generational trauma converge 12 July 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Cornerstones , Generational trauma , No Comments Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels I seem to be one of the few trauma writers that distinguishes between ancestral and generational trauma. Some writers seem to be […]
Ancestral trauma #10 – identity warfare 3 July 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , No Comments Numbers 31 is one of the most disturbing passages in the Bible. The Israelites defeat the Midianites. Every adult male is killed, towns and encampments are burned, women and children taken captive. When Moses sees […]
Ancestral trauma #9 – Apathy and futility 2 June 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , No Comments Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash In Ancestral trauma #8 – Fear of famine, I describe how long-term drought in the Sahara, Middle East and Central Asia led to desertification and famine. Apathy and a sense of […]
Ancestral trauma #8 – Fear of famine 1 June 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , No Comments Photo by Peter Muscutt on Unsplash When I was a child, I was sometimes puzzled by my mother’s food choices. She had a particular love of lard on toast—rendered pig fat on burnt, stale bread. Sweetbreads—the thymus […]
Escaping the present – trauma’s frozen fight-or-flight legacy 13 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments Whenever I used to call my father, he always began the conversation with the same question: “What’s new?” It’s twenty years since he passed away, yet only now do I see the pain […]
Kill or be killed – the basic patriarchal equation 1 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Patriarchy , No Comments In 2020, In a blog called The 3 laws of patriarchy, I suggested that the basic psychological laws governing patriarchal societies were these: The Law of Masculinity—the masculine rules the […]
All trauma is survival trauma 26 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Generational trauma , No Comments We tend to think of trauma as something exceptional—something that happens in extreme situations, to other people, at other times. This is a naïve and comforting illusion. Trauma is not the exception. It’s […]
Humanity isn’t normal, it’s normalised 21 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Generational trauma , Patriarchy , No Comments We are not normal. We are normalised. Those four extra letters matter—a lot. Because what we call ‘normal’ behaviour—our anxiety, our compulsions, our quiet shame, our obsessions with fame, status, and […]
Ancestral trauma #7 – The end of time 5 January 2023 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , 1 Comment The climate change that happened from around 4000 BC—documented in the Bible as The Fall—shattered Neolithic human physiology. It created homo patriarchus, patriarchal man, hell-bent on conquest and the stockpiling of surplus to […]
Ancestral trauma #6 – Fear of the desert and desertification 3 January 2023 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , No Comments As soon as the Toyota Landcruiser’s heavy tyres crunched onto the gravel road, I felt it in the pit of my stomach. Fear. It was only a few miles off-road to […]