{"id":307256,"date":"2025-11-10T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=307256"},"modified":"2025-11-10T10:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:09:10","slug":"reparology-a-scientific-evolutionary-model-for-healing-from-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/11\/reparology-a-scientific-evolutionary-model-for-healing-from-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Reparology: A Scientific Evolutionary Model for Healing \u2028from Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time Doesn\u2019t Heal Wounds–People Do<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For decades, I have been dreaming of a time that would be ripe for a truth and justice process for Palestine\/Israel. Conditions for Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are impossible during hostilities, while society is gripped by mass hysteria and psychological regression.<\/p>\n

I have been thinking about Carl Jung\u2019s 1945 essay, “After the Catastrophe.” Only After<\/em> could Jung reflect on the nature of \u201capocalyptic events,\u201d collective guilt, and the \u201cmeaning of the whole tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When evil breaks at any point into the order of things, our whole circle of psychic protection is disrupted. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Being forced to helplessly witness the depths of human cruelty, we experience vicarious trauma. And learned helplessness.<\/p>\n

The sight of evil kindles evil in the soul\u2026. The victim is not the only sufferer; everybody in the vicinity of the crime, including the murderer, suffers with him. Something of the abysmal darkness of the world has broken in on us, poisoning the very air we breathe and befouling the water with the stale, nauseating taste of blood.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Despite \u201cNever Again,\u201d the UN, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Genocide, the ICC, the ICJ, nothing has fulfilled the UN Charter\u2019s determination to \u201csave succeeding generations from the scourge of war\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe terrible things that have happened… are a blow aimed at all [humankind]. … the fact that one member of the human family could sink to the level of the concentration camp throws a dubious light on all the others. Who are we to imagine that ‘it couldn\u2019t happen here’?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Nothing has prevented Netanyahu\u2019s regime\u2019s unstoppable killing rampage, attacks on seven countries, with collusion from US government, Christian Zionists, and world governments. Gaza has become the center of the universe.<\/p>\n

The question remains: How am I to live with this shadow? What attitude is required if I am to be able to live in spite of evil?\u00a0 ..\u00a0 a complete spiritual renewal is needed \u2026 each man must strive to achieve it for himself. \u2026 The eternal truths cannot be transmitted mechanically; in every epoch they must be born anew from the human psyche. <\/strong><\/p>\n

While working on our own spiritual renewal, we can cultivate conditions for emerging from this collective insanity.<\/p>\n

This quote stuck in my mind for 30 years<\/p>\n

Even a saint would have to pray unceasingly for the souls of Hitler and Himmler, the Gestapo and the S.S., in order to repair without delay the damage done to his own soul.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evil calls for expiation, otherwise the wicked will destroy the world utterly, or the good suffocate in their rage which they cannot vent, and in either case no good will come of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>How do we expiate humanity to restore wholeness? It is a matter of consciousness.<\/p>\n

Interregnum <\/strong><\/p>\n

Some consider the current cataclysms as the last throes of a declining empire as Johan Galtung predicted in The Fall of the US Empire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Antonio Gramsci described an interregnum period as a chaotic phase of upheaval where the old order \u201cis dying,” but “the new cannot be born.”\u00a0 A “time of monsters\u201d when authoritarians exploit chaos to hold onto power, while emerging forces struggle to consolidate power.<\/p>\n

Gramsci envisioned a group of entrepreneurial elites, with skills and sensibilities to facilitate the transition to the new paradigm. \u201cOrganic intellectuals,\u201d acting consciously<\/em>, draw upon existing ideas to influence a better outcome. They articulate worldviews that align with people\u2019s material conditions and values to shape consciousness and cultivate the new order.<\/p>\n

My dream for a Palestine\/Israel TRC is premature and \u201cutopian\u201d during mass hysteria, violence and denial, but worth articulating a vision for when time is ripe.<\/p>\n

Truth and Transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRCs have emerged globally since the 1970s, evolving as we recognize responsibility to victims, the need for coexistence, and preventing spirals of violence.<\/p>\n

Ancient and recent rituals help societies emerge from unspeakable horrors – from Hawaii\u2019s ancient Ho\u2019o Pono Pono to South Africa\u2019s famous TRC), led by Bishop Desmond Tutu, designed to prevent a bloodbath. Emphasizing the Christian value of forgiveness, perpetrators could apply for amnesty in exchange for truth.<\/p>\n

Below is a chart of 30 Global TRCs. See \u201cReview Essay and Annotated Bibliography<\/a>\u201d of TRCs by Kevin Avruch and Beatriz Vejarano<\/h3>\n

Dilemmas and Contradictions <\/strong><\/p>\n

TRCs designed according to legal, religious and political agendas are constrained by rules, interests and beliefs. Limitations include retraumatization of victims, lack of follow-up, hollow apologies lacking remorse, etc. Ancient rituals possess more wisdom.<\/p>\n

Every situation, with unique features and common patterns required individual design, like \u201cpolitical therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Tensions between the needs and desires of victims and the crimes of perpetrators, are expressed by Martha Minow\u2019s title, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s innovative strategy granted amnesty to perpetrators who testified without remorse. Public testimony of victims and religious pressure to forgive was retraumatizing for some and liberating for others.<\/p>\n

Minow questions issues of justice for individual and collective healing when amnesty equals impunity. Retributive and restorative justice must be evaluated for impact on social transformation. See Minow\u2019s 12 goals for TRCs (p. 88) below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>John Paul Lederach\u2019s peacebuilding paradigm involves creation of a place where Truth, Mercy, Justice, and Peace can meet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Joseph Montville, refers to healing components of contrition and forgiveness, essential to peacemaking. Three steps leading to reconciliation in problem-solving settings include joint historical analysis of the conflict; recognition of injustices and resulting historic wounds; and acceptance of moral responsibility.<\/p>\n

Montville stresses the need to address the psychological needs of the victims and victimizers, including unhealed traumas that impact individual, group and national psychologies, and sense of victimhood, especially with ethnic conflict.\u00a0He describes \u201can inescapable link between justice and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download PDF FILE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Global Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Charts<\/a><\/p>\n

Overcoming TRC Shortcomings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most TRCs focus on what Galtung calls negative peace, the absence of violence, rather than positive peace.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Negative Peace<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Aims <\/strong>to prevent violence and revenge. They may not analyze and correct underlying causes<\/strong>, structural inequalities or grievances. Results are fragile.<\/h3>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Positive Peace<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Aims to analyze and address underlying causes, repair harm, ensure equity, and create structures and conditions to foster quality of life, social cohesion, and prosperity. Reparative forms of justice end impunity, provide dignity for survivors and a model for society. P<\/strong>ositive peace transforms societies, enabling sustainable development, trust, and collective flourishing.<\/p>\n

Phoenix rising from the ashes of the Holocaust, symbolized by images of the concentration camp striped uniforms. symbolizes renewal and transformation after catastrophe. Unfortunately, this Phoenix jumped out of a burning building and landed on<\/strong>\u00a0innocent Palestinian society. More is needed to prevent traumatic reenactment.<\/p>\n

Conscious Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have enough knowledge now to design processes that are a quantum leap beyond previous TRCs. Enlightened methods informed by social science, can meet psychological needs and legitimate goals optimized for all parties. Galtung\u2019s Transcend Method, with analysis, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, includes all parties to the conflict. We have wisdom enough to address historical trauma, reverse cycles of violence and transform protracted conflicts. Opportunities for growth and repair create conditions for structural peace.<\/p>\n

Conscious evolution<\/em> addresses<\/p>\n