War, terror and mourning. Cultural memory in the inner dialogue

ABSTRACT

This text compares four essays dealing with war, state terror in dictatorships, social violence such as racism, mourning and the avoidance of mourning. It shows that dictatorships share similarities in their techniques of manipulation, linguistic style and reference to history. They seek to exploit national myths through manipulative alienation. Myths are a central element of cultural memory, and their effect can be understood through a model of internal dialogue. This dialogue determines whether the regime's attempts at manipulation are successful.

KEYWORDS:

• mental effects of war and terror
• unconscious in the community
• cultural memory
• collective memory
• myths
• mourning

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Notes

1 In the Iliad, Achilles was the most skilful, strongest and deadliest fighter on the Greek side. After a quarrel with Agamemnon, the Greek commander, he withdrew from the fighting. The fortunes of war turned. However, when his close friend Patroclus was killed in battle by Hector, the eldest son of the Trojan king Priam, he fell into deep grief and then into a rage seeking revenge. He threw himself into battle the next morning, confronted Hector and killed him. However, he did not pay him the customary honour of a dead hero, but disgraced him by tying him to his chariot and dragging him around the walls of Troy. He even wanted to feed him to the dogs the next day. Only Priam's insistent pleas dissuaded him from doing so, and he left Hector's body to his father.

2 The term “culture” has various meanings. It describes, for example, the “fine manners” of a person, or it refers to the presentation of art and science in a city, the “cultural life”; but it also describes the entirety of the way of life of a tribe or a people in a pre-state stage of development, including the economy, language, customs, rules, art, tools, laws, religious beliefs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies, among other elements. Culture is then also used to describe a community or society. It is in this sense that the term culture is used here. The English anthropologist E.B. Tyler defined culture as follows: “Culture … is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (quoted in White 2022).