Just a week after the terrorists exploded their bombs in Madrid which caused the loss of precious lives and much grief to thousands of members of families and friends, I write to you with my condolescences, to pledge my support to you and to express my admiration for the wisdom and courage you have demonstrated in your times of misery and sadness.
Never has Spain, that is the organized and acting polity of Spain, been in recent history so high in the admiration and praise by the rest of the Western democracies and beyond. By the strength of their response and attitude Spain has stepped into the role of moral and political leadership in the EU and at present shines as an example anywhere else in the world. After so many years living abroad I have never been so proud of being a Spaniard. Many friends and simple acquaintances have spoken or written to me after the massacre in Madrid expressing their sympathy and sorrow, but also the admiration for the courage and wisdom of the reaction in the streets, the press and the voters during the elections of last Sunday just three days after the bombings.

The article by Javier Marias on the New York Times last Saturday speaks of the shock and the public expression of sentiments which is so human and so Spanish and Mediterranean. The process of sharing openly the deepest of emotions in a moral and mature manner has been revealed as a very valuable part of the culture at this time of crisis. In his last sentence he confesses that deep down he will never forgive. I understand him perfectly but I am not sure what he means by this. Does he mean he will never forget, which no one conscious of the times ever will, or does he mean that this pain of the event will seek for ever punishment or revenge? In fact the popular reaction in the streets and in the ballots has been very mature and wise.
People have spoken and said, Let us find the perpetrators and the rest does not matter much, what matters is what we do ourselves, not engaging in the barbaric comfort of vengeance, blustering hysterics or the manipulation of the pains of others, but responding in the light of our own common interests and best values and traditions of Spain. The Spain of Fray Bartolome de las Casas who denounced the abuses of the colonization in Latin America in the 16th century, the Spain that first opposed Napoleon, first fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War, provided refuge for thousands of Jews escaping the Nazi persecution in Germany and its occupied territories, and at present is trying to live in harmony and tolerance with a suddenly multi-ethnic immigrant population in their midst. The grieving in a collective catharsis of the days following the killings cleansed the sorrow and purged darker instincts of hatred and blind revenge which could be so easily understood, encouraged and exploited.

Mary Jo Leddy, a Canadian, was attending a retreat in Palma de Mallorca on the 11 of March. She wrote a lovely and powerful letter to her friends, which kindly included me. Mary Jo is a writer and a religious person deeply committed to helping refugees in Canada and creating spiritual support and resources in persons and in communities. She was moved not only by the loss of lives and the suffering of those left behind, but by the public demonstration of solidarity and community. She says, that what she saw in the streets of Palma negated the cruelty, hatred and despair of those actions. The ugliness of the event was transformed into faces, gestures and words of incomparable beauty and hope.

Jim is a retired professor at the University of Toronto. He is a rationalist philosopher as cool as they come, but passionate about what he teaches which is human rights. He is an activist too and leads an NGO working for education, peace and justice in the Middle East. In the best intellectual tradition his way of showing his awe and admiration for the wisdom and courage of Spain at this crossroad is in the form of a question of irony, "Is it possible that the Spanish people have not been fooled by this nonsense and lies of the
Spanish support of the USA coalition and showed the wisdom and courage that few have shown in Europe?" He sees the opportunity, indeed I would add, the obligation of Spain to take up the position of leadership in which her people have placed her. Of course, Jim like the majority of Canadians, fought for and supported the Canadian government in its valiant stand against war after Semptember 11, 2001.

Father Jack is a Jesuit priest and, for those who need or have needed his spiritual direction, a unique person. He liked the article by Marias, but objected to the last line on "deep down not being able to forgive". He conceded it is very difficult and does not know whether he could but he has no doubt at all that forgiving is what he is called to. I would not engage here in unscheduled theologies, like Lenny Bruce would say, because theology is not my business. However I agree with Fr. Jack for different reasons.

As a psychiatrist I have seen over the last 25 years more than one thousand persons who suffered torture and violations in their bodies, minds, families and communities. The perpetrators were their governments and their agents, in fact they were victims of state terrorism, nor revolutionary terrorism as in Madrid, but both equally inhuman and criminal. From the point of view of the psychology of victimization, forgiveness makes a lot of sense. The alternative to forgiving the aggressor is the identification with the aggressor, in consequence using his techniques and language and plunging into the ring of violence. This is the ring of the eternal return of Nietzsche, the re-experiencing of what is known which gives assurance and meaning to any existence which otherwise may be without excitement, pleasure or beauty, without guiding values and rudderless. This is the vicious circle in which the victim becomes the victimizer and a century or a lustrum later the victim again. This has been and is the case in the Balkans between Croatians, Serbians and Albanians, or with the Israelis in the Holy Land tormenting the Palestinians in ways reminiscent of their own Nazi tormentors. This is the boxing square confining and driving the opponents to mutual self destruction.

Dr. Eyad is a Palestinian psychiatrist working in Gaza. He has visited Spain, lectured at the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid and loves Spain. He has written in sympathy with the victims of Madrid. He knows a great deal about suffering, hatred, rage and revenge. In individual terms the pathological defense mechanism of identification with the aggressor, who after all seems to have an advantage over or be superior to the victim, is often found in his clinics. He told me the story of a Palestinian patient of his who had been tortured in a Palestinian jail by a Palestinian interrogator. When this interrogator could not obtain the results he wanted from him he grew very angry and began beating him harder and swearing in Hebrew, a language he had learned in an Israeli prison where he himself had being tortured. Eyad has written on the making of a suicide bomber. It is the hatred and despair caused by violence that begets violence. He sees weekly potential kamikaze bomber youth enraged and despaired by the Israeli occupation and violations. Their unforgiveness has brought further misery to others and disaster to themselves and to all Palestinians. And in Palestine, Afghanist?n and Iraq the cycle of violence continues.

The psychological treatment of the victims of state terrorism or popular terrorism is based on the same principles: interpret or reinterpret the meaning of the experience of trauma and suffering. It involves a transformation of the experience of defeat and humiliation into moral superiority and legal and strategic advantage, which in fact it is. The biographies of saints, martyrs and heroes are full of this transformation: from victims to models of moral fortitude and civility, from horror and despair to serenity and confidence in their own strength and in the potential goodness living within their opponents and enemies.

In the funeral service in Washington Cathedral the days following September 11, 2001, not one of the ministers of the various religions who spoke, none, nor Methodists, nor Roman Catholics, nor the rabbi or the imam, uttered the word 'forgiveness' or 'pardon'. Shame on them. They did not dare to contradict the predominant mood of rage and revenge. They missed an opportunity to do good and the rest of the story is being written in Iraq, Afghanistan and Madrid.

The people and the government of Spain after their 11 of March have taken a different route. Let us hope that they will continue in this direction. For this, with other people of peace and good will, they have my prayers and best wishes.

Federico Allodi. MD
Toronto, March 17, 2004