Repairing the damage: wishful, defensive, or restorative?

Abstract

Damage, physically and to the psyche is inevitable. This is whether it is caused unconsciously, through consciously malicious intent, thoughtlessness, as collateral or just through a hostile environment or the warring of internal forces. At the group or social level, the last few years have seen much damage in terms of economic recession, climate change, racial inequalities, and domestic violence. The desire to repair follows such damage. The psychoanalytic focus on reparation sees the process as an attempt by a person to repair perceived damage to another or, more precisely, to an internal image of the other—a loved other. Large groups such as organisations and societies also do damage and sometimes acknowledge this and make attempts to repair—perhaps defensively, simply to restore their own reputation, but perhaps from guilt and remorse. This article will invite readers to think about reparation in terms of either fantasied wishfulness, or defensiveness, or its possible restorative capacity. My exploration rests on the premise that damage is always to the system and that both that which damages and that which is damaged suffer. It is in system restoration that hope re-emerges.