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.

Background: Military members report higher instances of trauma exposure and subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relative to civilians. Encounters with children in war and conflict settings may have particularly unsettling consequences. However, the nature of these consequences has yet to be systematically examined.