Social Movements as Triggers of Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma and Memory in Chile

Abstract

This article explores the role of social movements in transmitting collective memory and trauma produced by the dictatorship across generations in Chile. It argues that, beyond civil society organisations focused on human rights, broader social movements, such as student, feminist, and anti-neoliberal protests, play a crucial role in uncovering and processing the trauma of past state violence. Using qualitative research and combining insights from social movement studies, social psychology, and psychoanalysis, we show how these movements produce spaces and situations where conscious and unconscious trauma originating in state political violence is unveiled, transmitted to the next generation, and in some cases, re-elaborated. The article also highlights the gendered dimension of memory, mainly through the experiences of women survivors of sexual political violence, who fought for official recognition of these crimes as distinct from torture. Social movements facilitate the articulation of these silenced histories, fostering intergenerational dialogue. Ultimately, the study underscores how Chilean society remains shaped by dictatorship-era violence, with social movements playing a vital role in confronting historical silences and shaping collective memory.