ABSTRACT
Many of international problems have created huge gaps in the physical and psychological borders of nation states; they cannot be dealt with as issues confined only within the boundaries of opposing nation states. Thinking as a psychoanalyst, the author of this chapter states that “forgiveness” in a large group cannot take place through magical gestures. Taming feelings about the other—if we can call this “forgiveness”—can be possible after shared mourning over losses, accompanied by shared experiences supporting large-group narcissism; in other words, only when some difficult shared psychological processes are accomplished. Meanwhile, theoretical and scientific writings about politics also continued to ignore psychoanalysis. Psychopolitical dialogues become a process where historical grievances, especially chosen traumas, are aired; perceptions, fears, and attitudes are articulated; and previously hidden psychological obstacles to reconciliation or change rise to the surface.
