Kleinian Reparation: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Residential School Apology in Canada

• Main Author: Greenberg, Barbara
• Other Authors: Hewitt, Marsha
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Religion; United Church of Canada; History; Psychoanalysis; Canadian Government; Melanie Klein; Apology; Residential Schools; 0318; 0334; Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/35082

The work of mid-twentieth century psychoanalyst Melanie Klein stresses the importance of the phantasy world and its role within the human psyche. For Klein innate human destructive phantasies coexist with feelings of love, guilt, and reparation. Love and hate exist in tension with one another and one must cope with balancing these feelings. I will use the psychoanalytic concept of reparation as understood by Klein to explore the performance of apology and reparation. Reparation, for Klein, refers to the psychological need to make things good, that is to say, to mend and repair relationships with others. Using this concept this work will examine the United Church of Canada's 1986 and 1998 apologies to First Nations peoples for its involvement in the residential school system, as well as the Canadian government's “Statement of Reconciliation” and 2008 apology for residential schools. This work asks the question: are these apologies effective in their attempts to make amends for past injustices or are they examples of what Klein calls “manic reparation”, which works to conceal, hide, or preserve phantasies of aggression? Klein's theories will provide a new and evaluative theoretical lens to discuss apology. The academic study of apology currently seeks to find “categorical elements”, which are then used to decide if the apology is a “success.” But this approach is missing the important component of the implied reparative concept within an apology. An apology is not only a written text but also an act that can work to conceal or reveal the perpetrators’ view of their transgressions. Exploring the manifest and latent content of apologies will provide a richer insight into the apology process.