Lucie and her family

This study aims to describe a rare clinical situation shared by a young patient and her first cousin, both from twin sisters: non-psychotic acoustic-verbal hallucinations of transgenerational origin.

We will propose a psychopathological reading of a ghost effect operating in this family from the conceptual framework of the "genealogical haunting", elaborated by Maria Torok and Nicolas Abraham.

The family interviews allowed us, as we progressed in the knowledge of the family history, to bring to light the symptoms of the patient with regard to the past of the twins, marked by the loss of their own mother; to remove certain unspoken words which heavily hindered the introjection and symbolization of a traumatic history.

The therapeutic situation of writing and having someone read to them allowed the passage of non-verbal cleaved secrets to a form through the word, elaboration and symbolization.

It was accompanied by a lasting improvement in the symptoms of both the patient and her cousin, which lasted for more than a year after all treatment had been stopped.