The Burden of Heritage is a timely addition to the literature on inter- and transgenerational trauma. The book addresses black ancestral trauma passed down the generations, highlighting the ongoing impact on black lives. Alleyne explores the themes and concepts of identity shame, black identity wounding and cultural enmeshment.

The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma
on Black Lives is a timely addition to the literature on inter- and
transgenerational trauma. The book addresses black ancestral trauma passed down
the generations, highlighting the ongoing impact on black lives.

Aileen Alleyne explores the unheeded dimensions of
individual and collective identity trauma, paying particular attention to the
themes and concepts of identity shame, black identity wounding and cultural
enmeshment.

The author expands on her striking concept, the 'internal
oppressor', that inhibits self-belief, full agency and potential. She reworks
the psychoanalytic concept of 'hauntings', separating it from Freud's
interpretation as unconscious repression, and presents it as a living and
conscious element of the black trauma burden. To break the cycle of
generational trauma, Alleyne suggests an active process of separation from
archaic attachments, and engagement in intentional modes of transformation.

Alleyne makes use of her own experiences throughout,
alongside therapeutic suggestions, approaches and theoretical handles for
steadying the practitioner in the consulting room. The book weaves the
personal, historical, socio-political and theoretical, and includes countless
observational examples, clinical vignettes and case material.

The Burden of Heritage offers effective tools to
practitioners who work therapeutically with black and minority ethnic clients,
and highlights ways to strengthen critical enquiry for deeper conceptual and
theoretical understanding of generational trauma.