Colonial Trauma is a path-breaking account of the psychosocial effects of colonial domination. Following the work of Frantz Fanon, Lazali draws on historical materials as well as her own clinical experience as a psychoanalyst to shed new light on the ways in which the history of colonization leaves its traces on contemporary postcolonial selves.Lazali found that many of her patients experienced difficulties that can only be explained as the effects of "colonial trauma" dating from the French colonization of Algeria and the postcolonial period. Many French feel weighed down by a colonial history that they are aware of but which they have not experienced directly. Many Algerians are traumatized by the way that the French colonial state imposed new names on people and the land, thereby severing the links with community, history, and genealogy and contributing to feelings of loss, abandonment, and injustice. Only by reconstructing this history and uncovering its consequences can we understand the impact of colonization and give individuals the tools to come to terms with their past.By demonstrating the power of psychoanalysis to illuminate the subjective dimension of colonial domination, this book will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the long-term consequences of colonization and its aftermath.

Foreword - Mariana WikinskiIntroduction: The Trouble of Acknowledging Colonial TraumaThe History of French Colonization in Algeria: A Blank Space in Memory and PoliticsA Much-Needed Interdisciplinary Approach1. Psychoanalysis and Algerian ParadoxesDisarray of the Private and Public SpheresGod's Reinforcement of Failing InstitutionsThe Power of Religion and the Religion of PowerThe Literary Text and the Invisible Staging of PowerThe Power of the "Language, Religion and Politics"(LRP) Bloc as Revealed by Clinical PsychoanalysisThe Duplicity of Subjects Confronting Censorship from the LRPAbandoned Citizenship and Speech Acts2. Colonial RuptureThe Colony: The Rogue Child of the EnlightenmentColonialism's Destruction of Social CohesionA Colonial Republic Divided, or the "Duty to Civilize [the] Barbarians"1945: A Literature of Refusal is BornNedjma: An Esthetic of Colonial Destruction?Disrupting Genealogical Ties: The Effect of "Renaming" Algerians in the 1880sSubjective Catastrophes and the Disappearance of the Father as Symbolic ReferenceWriting against Anonymous FiliationJean El Mouhoub Amrouche: A Broken Voice3. Colonialism Consumed by War1945-1954: The Necessity of WarThe Impossibility of Forgetting and Madness, a "Remedy" for DisappearanceSilencing the Unforgettable Mutilation of BodiesToulouse, 2012: The Return of MurderConstructing the "Nation"The Writer's Pressing Need: Transform Disappearance into Absence4. Colonialism's Devastating Effects on Post-Independence AlgeriaThe Mutilated Body of the Colonized and the Hunger for ReparationColonial Hogra and a Frantic Quest for LegitimacyThe "Orphaning" Effect of Colonialism and its ImpactFurther Distortion of PatronymsDivested of a Name: A Form of Colonial MurderManufacturing Erasure and Denial under ColonialismFrom Colonial Trauma to Social Trauma5. Fratricide: The Dark Side of the Political OrderThe Emergence of Algerian Nationalist Movements in the 1930sThe War of Liberation and an Impossible FraternityFrom Parricide to FratricideWhen the Murders between Brothers is Dismissed...Calling on the FatherA Gap in Memory Sets Off an Endless Deadly Battle6. The Internal War of the 90sReconsidering the LRP Bloc (language, religion and politics)The Tyranny and Pleasure of PowerThe Shift of 1988 and the Experience of Political PluralityAn Internal War of Unprecedented ViolenceThe Curse of FratricideThe War Comes HomeA Strange Reversal in NamingDo Freedom and Terror Go Hand in Hand?7. State of Terror and State TerrorA Clinical Understanding of TerrorThe Terrified Subject's Self-EliminationPsychological Terror is always PoliticalReconciliation: State Terror?When the State Tries to Make its Practice of Disappearance Disappear8. Legitimacy, Fratricide and PowerJugurtha: A Fratricidal HeroUnpunished Crimes within the RepublicThe Legitimacy the French Conquest Claimed for ItselfThe Passion-filled Scene of ColonialityThe Specter of Discord: el Fitna9. Getting Out of the Colonial PactAfter Liberation, the Indefatigable Reenactment of Coloniality within Subjectivities and the Political OrderTrauma as Shelter and AlibiThe Brutalization of the Living: the Disappearance of ChildrenThe "Bone Seekers": from the Child to the FathersConclusion: Ending the Colonial Curse: Lessons from FanonThe "Colonial Pact": Erasure of Memory, Disappearance of Bodies, Dispossession of ExistenceThe Mystical Quality of the ColonizedFor a Future LiberationNotesIndex