Denial, acknowledgement and reconciliation

This paper examines the recent work of professor Stanley Cohen on `states of denial? and will pay specific attention to his explication of the ways in which the concepts of denial and acknowledgement have been deployed in both mainstream culture and official discourses on truth and reconciliation. The paper tries to assess the extent to which Cohen?s model of denial and acknowledgement offers a potential basis for facilitating reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia. Particular attention will be paid to Cohen?s argument about the dangers inherent in the ?over-acknowledgement? of past suffering. U radu je predstavljen rad profesora Stanley Cohen-a o tzv. "stanjima poricanja" kojima se profesor Cohen bavio u poslednje vreme. Posebna paznja obratice se na njegovo objasnjenje nacina na koje se koncept poricanja i priznanja razvijao u tzv. mainstream kulturi i zvanicnim stavovima o istini i pomirenju. Rad ce pokusati da oceni u kojoj meri Cohen-ov model poricanja i priznanja moze da predstavlja potencijalnu osnovu za proces pomirenja u bivsoj Jugoslaviji. .