The Dialectic of Remembering and Forgetting in Memory Therapy: Ricoeur in Dialogue with Psychoanalysis
The Dialectic of Remembering and Forgetting in Memory Therapy: Ricoeur in Dialogue with Psychoanalysis

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the impact of violence on memory and examines the scope of forgiveness in neutralizing negativity derived from memory distortion. Referring to the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, the article discusses the characteristics of memory deficiency and excess, along with their impact on the formation of the historical narrative of a community and its identity. Pathological forms of memory are analyzed, which, through the psychoanalytic concepts of repression and melancholy, can result in compulsive repetition or manic states. By juxtaposing Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology with psychoanalytic theory, the article analyzes various modes of recalling and oblivion. It also shows the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, which, along with the entire process of working-through and mourning, can lead to forgiveness. This process provides both the guilty party and the victim with the prospect of regaining the ability to shape their lives independently of their determinative past, within the framework of Ricoeur’s phenomenology of the capable human being.

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