Grief and the Transformation of Emotions After War

International Studies Review, 2017

2016). Affective Communities in World Politics: Collective Emotions after Trauma. Cambridge University Press, New York, 350 pp., $120.00 hardcover (ISBN: 978-1-1070-9501-4).

European Journal of Social Theory, 2008

European Journal of Social Theory, 2008

This article examines the public significance of emotions, most specifically their role in constituting identity and community in the wake of political violence and trauma. It offers a conceptual engagement with processes of healing and reconciliation, showing that emotions are central to how societies experience and work through the legacy of catastrophe. In many instances, political actors deal with the legacy of trauma in restorative ways, by re-imposing the order that has been violated. Emotions can in this way be directed by elites who are concerned with reinstating political stability and social control. Healing often becomes more about retribution and revenge, rather than a long-term project begetting peace, collaboration and emotional catharsis. The emotions triggered by trauma thus tend to perpetuate existing antagonisms, further entrenching the disingenuous perceptions of identity that may have created violence in the first place. Surveying this process, this article suggests that scholars of politics and reconciliation need to be more attentive to the role emotion plays in shaping particular forms of community. Doing so requires a systematic understanding not only of the feelings associated with first-hand experiences of trauma, but also of the manner in which these affective reactions can spread and generate collective emotions, thus producing new forms of antagonism. Addressing this challenge, the authors explore how a more conscious and active appreciation of the whole spectrum of emotions — not only anger and fear, for instance, but also empathy, compassion and wonder — may facilitate more lasting and ingenuous forms of social healing and reconciliation.

Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 2018

This paper aims to explore the consequences for adolescents and young adults of losses that took place in the context of sequential traumatisation. We explore how a series of traumatic events can have a cumulative impact on the process of mourning and thus on development. We start by providing a brief introduction to the context of our work, and then present detailed descriptions of two clinicians' different styles of work with two very different young people.

2019

Millions of people have been affected by wars and violent conflicts in twentieth century Europe. Individuals, communities and countries live with the memories of these troubled pasts and the emotions that come with it. In some cases there is an accumulation of troubled pasts: for example, the countries that were part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia experienced two World Wars, the communist authoritarian regime and the Balkan wars in the span of one century. How are troubled pasts used to deepen perceived divisions and legitimize radicalization or inclusion? What psychological processes can contribute to mutual understanding, resilience and the acknowledgement of troubled pasts? These questions have become more urgent in the present political climate. This symposium presents a multidisciplinary perspective on the way European societies deal with troubled pasts. The presentations are followed by a discussion

2006

In this article, six individuals who come from war-affected societies in different parts of the world are sharing their experiences and views on war through individual narratives. Based on these war narratives, the article, in particular, explains how memories of past experiences remain, while there are cognitive shifts in one's view of one's present life. While most literature argues that the pain of the far reaching consequences of war lasts many years, yet, based on the narratives that people in this article discuss, feelings related to war may shift from hopelessness to optimism, for example, or from helplessness to becoming more committed to peacebuiding. In this context, war narratives are able to generate a discourse of inward change. This article will highlight at least, three major factors that contribute to these cognitive and emotional shifts, namely: peace education in higher learning; being in a relatively safe environment, that is, being away from war; and an e...

Review of International Studies, 2004

In cases such as World War I grief or trauma were nearly universal in the European context and a direct consequence of a political experience of war. This article asks whether widespread social suffering may have a social and political expression that is larger than the sum of traumatised or bereaved individuals. Section 1 explores Martha Nussbaum's theory of emotion, particularly as it relates to grief and compassion and uses this to build two contrasting typologies of grief and trauma. Central to this contrast is the idea that grief, as an emotion, is embedded in a community, while trauma and emotional numbing correspond with a breakdown of community and an isolation, which may give rise to solipsism. The latter would appear to make any notion of social trauma a contradiction in terms. Section 2 draws on the philosopher Wittgenstein's critique in the Philosophical Investigations of his early work in the Tractatus, to argue that even the solipsist exists in a particular kin...

Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No 11, edited by Beatrix Austin and Martina Fischer, with contributions by Brandon Hamber, Olivera Simic, David Becker, Undine Whande and Andrea Zemskov-Züge. The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground. Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue.

Journal of International Political Theory, 2019

Emotions that run through relations of power are complex and ambivalent, inviting resistance and opposition as much as compliance. While the literature in IR broadly accepts emotions as an intrinsic element of power and governance, relatively little attention has been given to situations when the emotional meanings of ‘the state’ are openly contested. This essay highlights a situation in which emotional meanings are contested, or what I refer to as affective sites of contestation: situations and events where rules and norms about the proper expression of emotions are challenged, resisted, and potentially redefined. It is the ambivalence and alternation of particular emotional meanings, which, I will suggest, makes emotions an object of contestation in world politics. Whenever ‘official’ emotions are contested from ‘below’, ‘the state’ itself, representing a national project, is called into question, potentially transforming the relationship between citizens and the state. Building on the works of sociologist Mabel Berezin and others, this essay develops the ideal types of ‘the secure state’ and ‘communities of feeling’ as analytical prisms to reconstruct the political contestation of emotional meanings, pertaining to how collective grief is expressed after a terror attack.

Journal of International Political Theory, 2019

Emotions that run through relations of power are complex and ambivalent, inviting resistance and opposition as much as compliance. While the literature in IR broadly accepts emotions as an intrinsic element of power and governance, relatively little attention has been given to situations when the emotional meanings of 'the state' are openly contested. This essay highlights a situation in which emotional meanings are contested, or what I refer to as affective sites of contestation: situations and events where rules and norms about the proper expression of emotions are challenged, resisted, and potentially redefined. It is the ambivalence and alternation of particular emotional meanings, which, I will suggest, makes emotions an object of contestation in world politics. Whenever 'official' emotions are contested from 'below', 'the state' itself, representing a national project, is called into question, potentially transforming the relationship between citizens and the state. Building on the works of sociologist Mabel Berezin and others, this essay develops the ideal types of 'the secure state' and 'communities of feeling' as analytical prisms to reconstruct the political contestation of emotional meanings, pertaining to how collective grief is expressed after a terror attack.