Massive Violent Death and Contested National Mourning in Post-Authoritarian Chile and Argentina: A Sociocultural Application of the Dual Process Model

Abstract

This article uses the dual process model (DPM) in an analysis of the national mourning of tens of thousands of disappeared in Chile and Argentina by adapting the model from the individual to the collective level where society as a whole is bereaved. Perpetrators are also involved in the national mourning process as members of a bereaved society. This article aims to (a) demonstrate the DPMs significance for the analysis of national mourning in post-conflict societies and (b) explain oscillations between loss orientation and restoration orientation in coping with massive losses that seem contradictory from a grief work perspective.