Putting Site Back into Trauma Studies: A study of five detention and torture centres in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

Modern states often find it convenient to silence the victims of torture and terror by silencing the memory of sites of violence, or by obliterating the sites themselves. Through a study of five sites of state violence in Santiago, Chile, we consider the importance of place in the healing of individual and collective trauma. Survivors of terror and torture, their families, the families of the disappeared, and subsequent generations each have special needs of therapy and healing. We argue that in each the historic site of violence remains crucial.