This article reviews the strategies that have been applied across cultures in order to heal a wounded collective identity of societies upon large-scale conflicts and wars. The issues of truth, memory, and different models of justice executed within this process are discussed. Also, differences and similarities between individual and collective “healing” are explored and commented on. A general cross-cultural normative framework for conflict solving, collective “healing” and justice is neither possible, nor desirable. Models of restorative, retributive and reparative justice should be combined with reconciliation efforts. Societal problems should not be medicalized and individualized. Cultural sensitivity is crucial in designing proper strategies. The contextual model is the one that should be applied while making plans for rebuilding health and dignity after trauma on a collective level. “Healing” must be the outcome of structural and political changes and not their substitute.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text revision). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Andrews, M. ( 2003). Grand national narratives and the project of truth commissions: A comparative analysis. Media, Culture & Society, 25, 45-65.
3.
Atsumi, T., Yamori, K., & Takano, N. ( 2004, July). Group dynamics in the collective remembering of historical events: Toward collaborative remembering. Paper presented at the European Association of Social Psychology meeting on Collective Remembering, Collective Emotions and Shared Representations of History: Functions and Dynamics, Aix-en-Provence, France.
4.
Auerbach, Y. ( 2005). Conflict resolution, forgiveness and reconciliation in material and identity conflicts. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 29, 41-80.
5.
Bala, J. ( 2004). Beyond the personal pain: Integrating social and political concerns in therapy with refugees. In D. Ingleby (Ed.), Forced migration and mental health: Rethinking the care of refugees and displaced persons (pp. 169-182). New York: Springer.
6.
Bar-Siman-Tov, Y. ( 2001, February). Dialectics between stable peace and reconciliation . Paper presented at the Leonard Davis Institute, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
7.
Bedford, O., & Hwang, K.K. ( 2003). Guilt and shame in Chinese culture: A cross-cultural framework from the perspective of morality and identity. Journal of Theoretical Social Behaviour, 33, 127-144.
8.
Benjamin, A. ( 1992). Judging Lyotard. London: Routledge.
9.
Bloomfield, D. ( 1997). Peacemaking strategies in Northern Ireland: Building complementarity in conflict management theory. London: Macmillan.
10.
Bloomfield, D. ( 2006). On good terms: Clarifying reconciliation ( Berghof Report No. 14). Berlin , Germany: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management.
11.
Borneman, J. ( 1997). Settling accounts: Violence, justice and accountability in post-socialist Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
Bracken, P. ( 2001). Post-modernity and posttraumatic stress disorder. Social Science & Medicine, 53, 733-743.
13.
Bronfenbrenner, U. ( 1981) The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design (4th ed.). Cambridge : Harvard University Press.
14.
Candau, J. ( 2005). Anthropologie de le mémoire. Paris: Armand Colin.
15.
Chapman, A.R. ( 2002, November). Approaches to studying reconciliation. Paper presented at the conference on Empirical Approaches to Studying Truth Commissions, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
16.
Chemtob, C. ( 1996). Posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma and culture. In F. Lieh Mak & C. Nadelson (Eds.), International review of psychiatry (pp. 257-292). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
17.
Cobb, S. ( 1997). The domestication of violence in mediation. Law & Society Review, 31, 397-440.
18.
Cole, J. ( 2001). Forget colonialism? Sacrifice and the art of memory in Madagascar. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley University Press.
Drožđek, B. ( 2007). The rebirth of contextual thinking in psychotraumatology . In B. Drožđek & J. P. Wilson (Eds.), Voices of trauma: Treating survivors across cultures (pp. 1-26). New York: Springer.
21.
Dwyer, S. ( 2003). Reconciliation for realists. In C. A. L. Prager & T. Govier (Eds.), Dilemmas of reconciliation: cases and concepts (pp. 91-110). Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
22.
Elster, J. ( 2004). Closing the books: Transitional justice in historical perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Fitzpatrick, M. ( 2002, November). The therapeutic society. Spiked. Retrieved January28, 2010, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DB36.htm
24.
Fletcher, L.E., & Weinstein, H.M. (2002). Violence and social repair: Rethinking the contribution of justice to reconciliation. Human Rights Quarterly, 24, 573-639.
25.
Giesen, B. ( 2004). The trauma of perpetrators: The Holocaust as the traumatic reference of German national identity. In J. C. Alexander, R. Eyerman, B. Giesen, N. J. Smelser , & P. Sztompka (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 112-154). Berkeley: University of California Press.
26.
Honeyman, C., Hudani, S., Tiruneh, A., Hierta, J., Chirayath, L., Iliff, A., et al. (2004). Establishing collective norms: Potentials for participatory justice in Rwanda. Journal of Peace Psychology , 10, 1-24.
27.
Huang, L.L., Liu, J.H., & Chang, M. ( 2004). The "double identity" of Taiwanese Chinese: A dilemma of politics and culture rooted in history. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 7, 149-189.
28.
Humphrey, M. ( 2005). Reconciliation and the therapeutic state. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 26, 203-220.
29.
Igreja, V., Dias-Lambranca, B., & Richters, A. ( 2008). Gamba spirits, gender relations, and healing in post-civil war Gorongosa, Mozambique. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 14, 353-371.
30.
Irani, G. ( 2000). Rituals of reconciliation: Arab-Islamic perspectives . Mind and Human Interaction, 11, 226-245.
31.
Johnson, D.R., Lubin, H., Rosenheck, R., Fontana, A., Southwick, S., & Charney, D. ( 1997). The impact of the homecoming reception on the development of the post-traumatic stress disorder. The West Haven Homecoming Stress Scale (WHHSS). Journal of Traumatic Stress, 10, 259-277.
32.
Kelsall, T. ( 2005). Truth, lies, ritual, preliminary reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone. Human Rights Quarterly, 27, 361-391.
33.
Klain, E., & Pavic, L. ( 2002). Psychotrauma and reconciliation. Croatian Medical Journal, 42, 126-137.
34.
Krog, A. ( 1994). Die onreg van die Boere-Oorlog. Die Suid-Afrikaan (Oktober Bylaag), 7-8.
35.
Lambourne, W. ( 2001). Justice and reconciliation: Postconflict peacebuilding in Cambodia and Rwanda. In M. Abu-Nimer (Ed.), Reconciliation, justice and coexistence: theory and practice (pp. 311-338). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
36.
Lederach, J.P. ( 1995). Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
37.
Lederach, J.P. ( 2001). Civil society and reconciliation. In C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson , & P. Aall (Eds.), Turbulent peace: The challenges of managing international conflict (pp. 841-854). Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.
38.
Liu, J.H., & Atsumi, T. ( 2008). Historical conflict and resolution between Japan and China: Developing and applying a narrative theory of history and identity . In T. Sugiman, K. J. Gergen, W. Wagner, & Y. Yamada (Eds.), Meaning in action: Constructions, narratives, and representations (pp. 327-344). Tokyo: Springer-Verlag.
39.
Margalit, A. ( 2002). The ethics of memory. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
40.
McCandless, E. ( 2001). The case of land in Zimbabwe: Causes of conflict, foundation for sustained peace. In M. Abu-Nimer (Ed.), Reconciliation, justice and coexistence: Theory and practice (pp. 209-222). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
41.
McGinn, C. ( 2000). Conflict resolution and transitional justice in Sri Lanka: International experiences and applications. Ethnic Studies Report, 18, 159-178.
42.
Murphy, J.G. ( 1999). Moral epistemology, the retributive emotions, and the "Clumsy moral philosophy" of Jesus Christ. In S. Bandes (Ed.), The passions of law (pp. 149-190). New York: New York University Press.
43.
Murphy, J.G. ( 2003). Getting even: Forgiveness and its limits. New York: Oxford University Press.
44.
Nadler, A., & Liviatan, I. ( 2004). Intergroup reconciliation processes in Israel: Theoretical analysis and empirical findings. In N. R. Branscombe & B. Doosje (Eds.), Collective guilt: International perspectives (pp. 216-235). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
45.
Pupavac, V. ( 2004). War on the couch. European Journal of Social Theory, 7, 149-170.
46.
Richters, A., Dekker, C., & de Jonge, K. ( 2005). Reconciliation in the aftermath of violent conflict in Rwanda. Intervention, 3, 203-220.
47.
Scheper-Hughes, N. ( 1998). Un-doing: Social suffering and the politics of remorse in the new South Africa. Social Justice, 25, 114-142.
48.
Shaw, R. ( 2005, February). Rethinking truth and reconciliation commissions: Lessons from Sierra Leone (Special Report No. 130). Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace.
49.
Shaw, R. ( 2007). Memory frictions: Localizing the truth and reconciliation commission in Sierra Leone. International Journal of Transitional Justice, 1, 183-207.
50.
Siebert, R. ( 1992). Don’t forget: Fragments of a negative tradition . In L. Passerini (Ed.), Memory and totalitarianism (pp. 165-177). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
51.
Srna, J. ( 2005). Towards reconciling with ourselves and others: One possible path of recovery in Serbia and Montenegro. Psihologija, 38, 117-132.
52.
Staub, E. ( 1989). The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
53.
Staub, E. ( 1999). The origins and prevention of genocide, mass killings and other collective violence. Journal of Peace Psychology , 5, 303-336.
54.
Summerfield, D. ( 1997). The impact of war and atrocity on civilian populations . In D. Black, M. Newman, J. Harris-Hendricks, & G. Mezey (Eds.), Psychological trauma: A developmental approach (pp. 148-155). London: Gaskell.
55.
Takahashi, T. ( 1997). In search of the "real parent": Some thoughts on the roots of the psychology of the Japanese people. Mind and Human Interaction, 11, 208-215.
56.
Theidon, K. ( 2006). Justice in transition: The micropolitics of reconciliation in postwar Peru. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50, 433-457.
57.
Tutu, D.M. ( 1999). No future without forgiveness. New York: Doubleday.
58.
Tutu, D.M. ( 2009, December). Roundtable dialogue. Paper presented at the Beyond Reconciliation conference, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
59.
Uvin, P. ( 2003). The Gacaca tribunals in Rwanda. In D. Bloomfield, T. Barnes , & L. Huyse (Eds.), Reconciliation after violent conflict: A handbook (pp. 116-121). Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
60.
Volkan, V. ( 1997). Bloodlines-From ethnic pride to ethnic terrorism. New York: Strans & Giroux.
61.
Volkan, V. ( 1999a). Psychoanalysis and diplomacy. Part 1: Individual and large group identity. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies , 1, 29-55.
62.
Volkan, V. ( 1999b). Psychoanalysis and diplomacy. Part 2: Large-group rituals . Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 1, 223-247.
63.
Volkan, V. ( 1999c). The tree model: A comprehensive psychopolitical approach to unofficial diplomacy and the reduction of ethnic tension. Mind and Human Interaction, 10, 142-206.
64.
Wilson, J.P., & Drožđek, B. (2004). Broken spirits: The treatment of traumatized asylum seekers, refugees, war and torture victims. New York: Brunner Routledge.
65.
Wilson, J.P., Friedman, M.J., & Lindy, J.D. ( 2001). Treating psychological trauma and PTSD. New York: Guilford.
