Dr Hymie Anisman
Professor of Neuroscience at Carleton University
My research and writings have concerned the impact of stressful experiences on processes that influence the risk of psychological and physical health disturbances. The primary focus of my research involves the analysis of stressor effects and coping processes on neurobiological, inflammatory, and immunologically-related diseases. To this end, I have evaluated the impact of a broad range of stressor experiences, including those that entail early life adverse experiences and diverse lifestyle factors on psychological disorders and physical illnesses. As well, I have extensively studied the impact of traumatic events on the health of marginalized groups (e.g., in First Nations People, Immigrants from underdeveloped nations and war-torn regions). This has included the intergenerational (from parent to child) transmission impact traumatic experiences as well as the transgenerational (across three or more generations) actions that occur.
“brain regions speak to other parts of the brain, but the brain also speaks to other parts of the body… and [I] believe that there is a link between the immune system and the brain.”
Dr Hymie Anisman
Professor Anisman has intensively studied cumulative, historical trauma experienced by Jews and other minority groups.
I have published a memoir/novel entitled Before the Beginning and After the End (Amsterdam Publishers) that focuses on the resilience that facilitated the survival and growth of Holocaust survivors. More recently, Amsterdam Publishers released my latest memoir entitled From One Generation to the Next: Unbroken Resilience, which explores how events experienced during the Holocaust shaped attitudes and beliefs among survivors as well as in those of the next generation. The fundamental issue explored in these memoirs is how survivors of genocide came to terms with the horrors they experienced. Did they become shells of what they had been, or did they reestablish their shattered identities and find meaningful ways of moving forward productively? As a Second-Generation survivor of the Holocaust, I witnessed this process and believe it is my obligation to pass this on to the third generation.
Listen to Presentation
Stress & Health
Zelikovitz Centre hosts Holocaust Conference: Professor Hymie Anisman
New Book Out Now!
From one Generation to the Next: Unbroken Resilience
The Polish Golden Age for Jews ended abruptly with the 1939 Nazi invasion, leading to the systematic murder of 90% of the population through ghettos and death camps. This memoir chronicles a family of survivors who resisted their oppressors and eventually rebuilt their lives in Canada. Bound by shared history and collective trauma, these survivors passed vital lessons to their descendants, who now view rising modern antisemitism as a chilling echo of the events that preceded the Shoah.
Books
From one Generation to the Next: Unbroken Resilience
Before the Beginning and After the End
The Immune System: Mental Health and Neurological Conditions
Stress and Your Health: From Vulnerability to Resilience
An Introduction to Stress & Health
Health Psychology
An Introduction to Stress and Health
Cancer: How Lifestyles May Impact Disease Development, Progression, and Treatment
The Immune System and Mental Health
The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Psychoneuroimmunology
Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach