Memory as collective repetition: Thoughts on the way society comes to terms with the past, exemplified by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is widely regarded as an exemplary instance of the attempt to come to terms collectively with societal traumas. The challenges involved in this approach-oscillating as it does between healing, penalization, and reconciliation-are connected with a conflict revolving around the question of guilt. The article draws upon selected excerpts from hearings to investigate the South African model for coming to terms with politically conditioned traumas. It inquires whether and how collective attempts to cope with the past can be understood in terms of the three stages posited by Freud "remembering, repeating, working through" - and discusses the institutional and discursive approaches observable in the South African example. Investigation of the manifest and latent levels at which such attempts take place reveals that, in South Africa, memory work is charged in a paradoxical way, making specific forms of defense necessary in coming to terms with the social conflicts involved.