With this work, we intended to draw a cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation. No study had yet examined the potential contribution of high-level cognitive functioning, in addition to psychological health, to explaining attitudes towards reconciliation in societies exposed to major trauma such as post-genocide Rwanda. We measured the contribution of general cognitive capacity, analytical thinking, and subjective judgements.

In the communication of pain, language matters. Telling someone to feel pain is not just a description of one’s pain, it is – as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein informs us – also asking for recognition of that pain. This requires a shared language which communicates it. Do we need a new language which can communicate and recognize the pain of the colonial past more effectively?

Considerable academic effort has been invested in explaining the causes of, and processes behind moral injury. These efforts are mostly focused on assessment and treatment within a clinical setting. Collective and social factors contributing to moral injury are often overlooked in current literature. This perspective article considers the role of contextual factors associated with moral injury and proposes a framework that describes their relation to individual aspects.

Political apologies are increasingly common between former colonizer and colonized nations, but remain contentious as a policy and ambiguous in effectiveness at easing disputes. Between France and Algeria, reconciliation and apologies are actively being pursued, yet bilateral tensions are still high. According to research, apologies must meet specific criteria to be accepted, including semantic completeness. Apologies may also have discourses of memory and identity that attempt to repaint the identity of the perpetrator more favorably.