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Book: 'The Family Phantoms'

Author: Bruno Clavier

Genre: psychology

Score (1 to 6): 6

New Year, New Me. Well, yes, it's a bit corny and it's not really healthy to change our lives just because of the change of a number on the calendar, but I've always loved balance sheets and I think that when they are objective and without self-judgement, they can be useful. Balance sheets also lead to goal setting, the same rule applies to them I think.

With this overture I would like to introduce you to some of my goals for 2023:

- Moving more - doing yoga, running, etc.

- Eating with intention - not so much following diets and restrictions, as having a clear idea of what and why I put on my plate

- Taking care of my mental and spiritual health - that's number one actually.

Taking care of my psyche involves different things. I try to reduce my self-imposed stress (yes, I realize that setting goals can cause stress too), at least for the things I can't control. I'm also trying to find the root cause of various behaviors that I (where consciously, where not) implement that are neither enjoyable nor helpful to me. In this regard I have been attending terapeft recently and it has been extremely interesting, fruitful and enjoyable. I often think about various situations and patterns of behaviour from my childhood and can easily see where in my life they currently reflect.

I started reading "The Family Phantoms" by Bruno Clavier, which is turning out to be a terribly interesting and useful book. What is a "family phantom," how does it affect family members and their descendants, how is it passed from unconscious to unconscious, why are some children obsessed with their ancestors, and quite a few women wait their whole lives for Prince Charming to appear?

These questions - and many more - are answered by Bruno Clavier in The Family Phantoms, a book that introduces us to an astonishing world where "everything untold repeats itself". Secrets, fears, traumas, neuroses and delusions are reproduced from generation to generation. Anyone can fall victim to a ghost, even the greats. In addition to the cases of children and adults he introduces the reader to, Clavier subjects Arthur Rimbaud, Vincent van Gogh, and Sigmund Freud himself to transgenerational psychoanalysis in absentia. This adds further value to an utterly curious read, written in clear and popular language in the vein of Ansellen Schützenberger and Françoise Dolteau.

Bruno Clavier (b. 1957) is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist with a rich biography. He founded the Gavroche cultural committee (at the age of 11) at the student-occupied Sorbonne. He worked as an elementary teacher (for 15 years), was a martial arts competitor and coach, singer and composer of songs for children (20 records). He studied mathematics and Eastern languages, has a degree in clinical psychology, practices transgenerational psychoanalysis for children and adults, is a member of the association "Garden of Ideas" founded by the psychoanalyst Didier Dumas and the gynecologist Danielle Flaumenbaum, and lectures on psychogenealogy in France, Belgium, Quebec and other places around the world.