When conducting family therapy in a systematic approach, connections between the current difficulties in the child’s functioning and the events of the distant past, sometimes even those that occurred before the child’s birth, are sometimes analysed The emotional reactions of people that experience various kinds of loss, co-construct explicit and concealed beliefs that are inscribed in the principles of family rules. Their intergenerational message may be reflected in the specific, often metaphorical and symbolic, "problematic" functioning of the child. Assigning to children specific roles in the family or requiring them to fulfil more or less pronounced commitments, as well as evoking difficult, unreadable emotions in the child that are not related to his or her reality, may contribute to or intensify clinical manifestations of psychopathological symptoms, significantly impairing functioning. Referring to the clinical experience, available literature, as well as various theoretical concepts, the authors will try to decipher the mechanism of the inscribed losses experienced by previous generations in the development of disorders in functioning and their clinical picture in adolescents receiving family therapy and individual psychotherapy. The publication was based on a conference presentation.