History and Conflictuality

Every conflict has a history. Whether it concerns a subject, a group, an organization, an institution, a nation, we are always obliged to seek out the origin of the conflictuality. This may be the history of the individual, of the family, of a group, in whatever form any of these may take in the history of social conflicts, wars, massacres and in all traumas suffered. When we are called upon to deal with crises, conflicts, losses, and suffering within the frame of institutions, groups or services, nothing can be understood if we do not return to events and traumas that have, at times, been suppressed, repressed and foreclosed over the years, and which are at the root of the current situation. The same is true of societies and nations. Can we really ignore the history of conflicts, hatreds and tragedies that have occurred recently (and that may have their origins a long way back in the past), in the negotiations or in the efforts to create a new sense of unity and make a clean slate? The tragedies of today unfortunately bear the weight of history. This issue develops this thematic within different situations—individual, group-oriented, institutional, societal—both in terms of theories and clinical work.