Talking and Silence. Inter-generational Communication in the Family.

ocialisation in a family is the initial blueprint that forms our identity, the idea about who we are, where we belong to, whose continuation we are. Above all, family is an environment that is supposed to bring together its members through the feeling of mutual trust. It also offers the possibility (almost the obligation) to talk about confidential issues, but it can also create a “circle of silence” about phenomena which are taboo because of being painful and hurting both the speakers and the listeners.
The authors of the monograph chapters observe and analyse the different issues and aspects of inter-generational relationships and inter-generational communication in present-day families in Bratislava. They contextualise them and place them into the more complex framework of European research. They state that despite the fact of disagreements, misunderstanding, tensions or conflicts between generations, it is clear: the generations need each other, either at the level of society, community or family. Each generation brings to common relationships its own experiences and skills and this jointly shared diversity gives rise to a functioning society and family. The authors note that their monograph is an entry in the topic that has so far not been sufficiently and, especially, systematically explored. They consider the capturing of the ambivalence of the relationships and communication between generations in connection with conflicts between them to be the major challenge for any future research.