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This essay draws upon Laplanche’s intersubjective theory of the origins of the unconscious and extends his concept of the traumatic impact of enigmatic messages upon the infant to the social surround. The author considers the Polish horror film Demon as dramatizing the transmission of societal enigmas and the destructive impact of a country’s failure to remember or integrate past injustices and crimes. The possibility of societal mourning and recovery of memory is conceived of in terms of Laplanche’s formulations of inspiration and the translation of après coup evocations.