Mourning the disappeared

This paper explores questions pertaining to the interface between psychoanalysis and the social, with a particular focus on the subject of mourning within the context of totalitarian states and socio-political violence. More specifically, it focusses on the question of mourning with reference to the dictatorship that took place in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, in which 30000 civilians were illegally detained and killed by the military. These enforced disappearances generally entailed execution and secret disposal of the body. Those who became victims of this sinister practice were called by the military: The Disappeared. The absence of the body and the impossibility of giving burial to the dead, poses a fundamental problem in the mourning process of the families of the victims. This paper explores the difficulties involved in mourning in such circumstances.