The Therapy of Reconciliation

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a healing operation. It seeks to explicate the meaning and the burdens of ‘healing’ in this context by reading the TRC in relation to two different biopolitical rationalities: pastoralism and governmentalism. It suggests that each of these is premised on a different understanding of healing and hence a different therapy for life. Whereas the first—championed by Desmond Tutu—looks to restore the communal ‘bundle of life’ through acts of moral generosity (apology and forgiveness), the second—embedded in the institutional structure of the TRC—looks to overcome emotional stagnation (impacted grief and repressed guilt) through societal catharsis. While the chapter agrees with many critics that the promotion of forgiveness in the TRC was deeply problematic, it argues that the ‘healing as catharsis’ model was even more ethically compromised in its manipulation of emotional life.