Cultures Under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma. Edited By A. C. G. M. Robben and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco.  Cambridge University Press, 2001,  285 pp.

This book is about human aggression and human suffering, their interaction, and their immense effects on society. The authors ask how people come to terms with tragic and horrific events such as the Holocaust, the state-span terror of the Latin American counterinsurgency campaigns, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the organized ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and how societies are subsequently affected by such massive outbreaks of violence. They ask these questions from the perspectives of anthropology and psychoanalysis with the aim of broadening the dialogue between these two disciplines; neither of which, on its own, the editors claim, can fully understand collective forms of violence and destructiveness. The result is a thought provoking as well as heart-breaking book, well grounded in empirical, clinical, and theoretical work, which will enrich not only the disciplines involved but also those interested in the darker side of humanity. At this volatile and violent time of ethnic, national, and religious unrest this book is a timely read, pulling us back from the clutches of one-sided, black and white, eye-for-an-eye reactive thinking.