Transforming Societies after Political Violence

Brandon Hamber, Ph.D. was born in South Africa and currently works in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was trained as a clinical psychologist in South Africa and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster. He is the Director of INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute), an associate site of the United Nations University based at the University of Ulster. He coordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. He works mainly in the area of violence and trauma, and coordinated the Centre's project focusing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

• Looking Back, Moving Forward.- Miracles, Trauma and the Truth Commission.- A Tidal Wave of Emotion.- A Place for Healing.- Ambivalence and Closure.- Reparations and Paying for the Past.- Doing Justice.- Assessing Truth and Reconciliation.- Truth Telling and Violence Prevention.- Transforming Transitional Societies.

From the reviews: "Hamber brings an acute clinical sensibility and sophisticated research mind to a complex problem: state handling of reconciliation after a catastrophic upheaval. ... his main focus in this book is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process. ... a must read for any psychologist working with trauma survivors, especially postconflict trauma survivors. It calls upon a rich literature-from psychoanalysis ... to trial transcripts of commissions; it integrates all these sources to provide a truly unique contribution to the psychology of trauma." (Don Dutton, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 54 (47/3), November, 2009)