Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

by Susan Cain

And all of this the generations carry forward, into their psyches, into their families, into the body politic. If recent advances in epigenetics are any indication (as we’ll see in chapter 9), some may have passed down these experiences through the expression of their DNA, too, the cellular memory of ancient traumas encoded confusingly in American-born babies bred for optimism and cheer.