What scars do we carry without knowing where they came from? That was the question at the heart of the keynote address at the Mpowering Minds Women's Mental Health Summit 2026 in Bengaluru, delivered by Eamon McCrory, chief executive of mental health charity Anna Freud and professor of developmental neuroscience and psychopathology at the University College London.
McCrory, who is also an adjunct professor at Yale University and co-founder of the UK Trauma Council, has spent decades studying how adversity and trauma shape the developing brain—and what can be done to interrupt cycles of pain passed from one generation to the next.
His address, titled ‘Intergenerational Trauma: The Invisible Inheritance’, put a sharp focus on a pattern that has perhaps not been discussed widely in mainstream discourse: trauma does not end with the person who first experiences it. It ripples outward, shaping how parents relate to their children, how children learn to regulate their emotions, and how entire families navigate the world.
"Trauma really operates through its impact on relationships," he said. "And that also means that recovery and healing happen through relationships."
Drawing on his research, which uses brain imaging and psychological approaches to study the impact of trauma, McCrory explained the biological, psychological, and social pathways of trauma. He spoke about reward processing and how blunting of the reward system as a result of maltreatment experience can be an early marker of mental health issues.
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"[When reward processing is affected], social behaviour is poorly optimised in ways that frustrate/alienate peers and adults," he said.
When it comes to the mental health of women, intergenerational trauma can be particularly significant. Women still disproportionately bear the burden of caregiving in India. When they themselves carry unresolved trauma, it can quietly affect their capacity to feel emotionally safe—and by extension, the emotional safety of those in their care.
"In mothers with unresolved trauma, the transition to motherhood can be more stressful, and caregiving responses can be disrupted, not because of lack of love, but because trauma can alter attention, threat perception, emotional regulation, and the capacity to mentalise under stress," he explained, citing multiple studies.
McCrory was careful to frame his address not in despair but in possibility. His keynote delved deeply into how protective relationships and early intervention can mediate the effects of trauma and redirect developmental pathways toward healing.
He emphasised that the key task is support recovery. "Because women, of course, do not just inherit trauma," he reflected. "They inherit resilience and care and humour, and strength, and, in my own experience... the ability to get things done when the men sit around and just talk. If trauma can travel across generations, so can repair and recovery."
The keynote set a searching, substantive tone for the event.