Transforming Societies after Political Violence

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Looking Back, Moving Forward

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 1-9

3. Miracles, Trauma and the Truth Commission

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 11-36

4. A Tidal Wave of Emotion

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 37-52

5. A Place for Healing

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 53-73

6. Ambivalence and Closure

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 75-93

7. Reparations and Paying for the Past

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 95-115

8. Doing Justice

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 117-139

9. Assessing Truth and Reconciliation

   • Brandon Hamber

   Pages 141-163

10. Truth Telling and Violence Prevention

    • Brandon Hamber

    Pages 165-183

11. Transforming Transitional Societies

    • Brandon Hamber

    Pages 185-206

12. Back Matter

    Pages 207-249

    PDF

Paraphrasing Descartes, we may say that one method is to take the reader into your conf idence by explaining to him how you arrived at your discovery; the other is to bully him into accepting a conclusion by parading a series of propositions which he must accept and which lead to it. The first method allows the reader to re-think your own thoughts in their natural order. It is an autobiographical style. Writing in this style, you include, not what you had for breakfast on the day of your discovery, but any significant consideration which helped you arrive at your idea. In particular, you say what your aim was – what problems you were trying to solve and what you hoped from a solution of them. The other style suppresses all this. It is didactic and intimidating. J. W. N. Watkins, Confession is Good for Ideas (Watkins, 1963, pp. 667–668) I began writing this book over 12 years ago. It was started in the midst of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It is an exploration of what I have learned from the process. During the TRC, I was working at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in South Africa, primarily with people who testified before the Commission, but also on a range of research and policy initiatives in the area that is now called ‘transitional justice’. I have written about the TRC process extensively.

• Peace
• Peacebuilding
• benefits of reparation
• intervention
• political traumatisation
• political violence
• truth-recovery process
• victim statements
• violence
• violence in transition

From the reviews:

"Hamber brings an acute clinical sensibility and sophisticated research mind to a complex problem: state handling of reconciliation after a catastrophic upheaval. … his main focus in this book is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process. … a must read for any psychologist working with trauma survivors, especially postconflict trauma survivors. It calls upon a rich literature–from psychoanalysis … to trial transcripts of commissions; it integrates all these sources to provide a truly unique contribution to the psychology of trauma." (Don Dutton, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 54 (47/3), November, 2009)

Brandon Hamber, Ph.D. was born in South Africa and currently works in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  He was trained as a clinical psychologist in South Africa and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster. He is the Director of  INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute), an associate site of the United Nations University based at the University of Ulster. He coordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.  He works mainly in the area of violence and trauma, and coordinated the Centre's project focusing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Policies and ethics