The missionary position is a trauma response 15 August 2024 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , Patriarchy , Sexuality , No Comments In Sex in patriarchy – how the past shapes sex today I describe the ‘3 M’s’—married, monogamous, missionary (position)—as the bedrock of modern sexuality. At the time, I attributed the […]
How the endocrine system created humanity’s core anxiety 5 May 2023 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , Cornerstones , No Comments The British Mental Health Foundation’s statistics for 2022-23 show that 37.1% of women and 29.9% of men reported “high levels of anxiety.” This rose from 21.8% and 18.3% respectively in the period […]
The science behind generational trauma 16 September 2022 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments On the surface, generational trauma seems weird and unfathomable. Its manifestations can border on the supernatural. Yet there is increasingly solid science behind our understanding of inherited trauma. Here are a few of the key strands. […]
Patriarchy arose from a systemic fight-or-flight malfunction 26 September 2021 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , No Comments In Generational trauma is a frozen fight-or-flight response, I describe how a malfunction of the fight-or-flight mechanism causes trauma, which can then be inherited. I’ll now extend that understanding to show how this fight-or-flight malfunction, […]
What is your family narrative? 23 September 2021 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments I recently learned that in 1922 my great-grandfather was jailed for six months for tax fraud, in relation to the hotel where he was the publican. This might seem like a small and perhaps a little […]
Generational trauma is a frozen fight-or-flight response 3 September 2021 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Generational trauma , 2 Comments We tend to think of trauma as a psychological issue. Yet it’s an issue that’s very much rooted in the body. Research has shown a connection to chemicals produced by the fight-or-flight […]
The emotional cost of generational trauma 25 September 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments What is the impact of generational trauma? How do we count the emotional cost of generational trauma? This photograph from Sydney Sims says it all. We spend our lives trying to paste on a smile […]
What are shame-based issues? 3 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Shame , No Comments Unconscious shame has given rise to a family of shame-based issues that all share a common denominator: the inability to discuss them. I’ve written about the origins of this shame in A brief history of shame. […]