Towards reconciling with ourselves and others

Abstract

In the first section of the paper, by reviewing the contemporary literature in this field, the author searches for answers to the following questions: What is reconciliation? Should it occur, why, and when? Who should participate in this process and how? What are the instruments of reconciliation? By examining the process of reconciliation, on an internal and external level, from an interpersonal and collective perspective, the author in the second section tries to bring together two reconciliation instruments, closely tied to the field of clinical psychology. Focusing on “healing by dealing with the past,” the author develops the framework for reconciliation. This framework involves three issues: the relevant facts of living in this region within the historical and socio-cultural context, a model that connects those facts, and the strategies to be undertaken for the path of recovery.

Keywords

• reconciliation
• post-war society
• Serbia and Montenegro