Healing of the nation

A little while ago I wondered if you could put a nation ‘on the couch’, so to speak, to counsel it, in seeking healing for a violent past that still leaves its stain on today.  Perhaps today’s apology by the Australian federal parliament is a step towards such a process.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

Filed under: Australia, colonialism, history, memory , Apology to the Stolen Generations, Australian history, Politics, psychoanalysis

Can you psychoanalyse a nation?

A couple have a long and tumultuous history. There were thrown together – it was far from love at first sight, but a curious attraction was there.  Misunderstandings insued, escalating into violence, retribution, the dominance of one partner over the other.  A long time passes, the entrenched patterns of relating are far from healthy – but how can one act otherwise?

Perhaps a new spirit in the relationship emerges – each wants to do well, and has realised that they are somewhat stuck with the other.  Nobody can go back.  How do you recognise and act on the difficulties?  How to untangle the mess of this history?

Now, imagine that it isn’t a couple, but two – or more – goups of people thrown together in the relationship of colonisers and colonised.  Can you do it?  Can you put a nation into therapy?

Filed under: colonialism, experiences, history, memory, random thoughts