Il trapianto del trauma: la memoria condivisa del male

Luigi Spina

Abstract:

The modern diagnosis known as "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" has been compared to the effects felt by veterans of the war of Troy, when these heroes came back home. In this paper, I intend to analyze from the point of view of trauma and its treatment the civil war in Athens and in particular the solution reached by the victorious Athenian democrats in 403 b.C.: the so-called 'amnesty' for political and social reconciliation. It is possible, to compare certain aspects of the Athenian experience with modern amnesties or with the activities of several "Commissions for Truth and Reconciliation", in order to consider whose trauma politicians keep in mind and why they ask their fellow citizens to forget the past.