This 26-page bilingual publication (English/German) provides a multi-layered analysis of intergenerational trauma transmission. It documents the systematic erasure of identity through the lens of a mother-son relationship shaped by institutional upbringing and the "Verdingkind" (forced child labor) system in Austria. Key Analytical Focus: Actional Melancholy: A study of "destructive outbursts" where physical objects (childhood photographs) were destroyed as a symbolic annihilation of the descendant's existence. The Crypt Effect (Abraham/Torok): The analysis of how the concealment of paternal (Dr. Peter Strobl) and ancestral (Maria Krug) identities created a "psychic tomb," leading to the biographical expropriation of the son. DARVO & Projective Identification: An examination of the defense mechanisms used to maintain a "monopoly on truth" by labeling the victim as a "failure" to deflect from maternal trauma (C-PTSD). Institutional Buffer: A paradoxical observation of how the son’s upbringing in foster care (Infant home, Itzling children's home) served as a life-saving distance from maternal pathology. Biographical Restitution: This work refuses the simplistic label of "madness" (Exonerative Stigmatization) and instead provides scientific precision through Traumatogenic Dissociation. It documents the life of Herta Brigitte Bertel from her origins in Lungau to her death in Salzburg, uncovering the systemic violence that deformed her personality.
Peter Siegfried Krug (2026) studied this question.