Beyond Victims and Perpetrators: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Concepts on Trauma and Witnessing and their Contribution to the Critique of Political Violence

The paper introduces contemporary psychanalytical thought on the concepts of trauma and witnessing and presents its potential contribution to processes of transformation of socially denied violence. Specifically, it attempts to tackle the challenging and intricate subject of trauma and testimonies of perpetrators, currently a neglected area. Through an examination of the critical reception of testimonies of Israeli soldiers, it highlights both the risks and the potential of the practice of listening to perpetrators within the therapeutic sphere and in the public arena. It concludes by calling for an enhanced integration of these two spheres, for the sake of better social coping with compulsively repeated political violence.