Unsettling Accounts: Neither Truth Nor Reconciliation in Confessions of State Violence. LEIGH A. PAYNE: Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2008.

Abstract

Fora scholar who studies torture in the context of state-sanctioned violence,Leigh Payne sustains great faith in democracy. In fact, the resiliency andresourcefulness of transitional democracies to confront, process, and utilizehorrific "confessions" is a major theme in her valuable book. Payne positionsher argument squarely between two competing schools of thought: that the full,graphic accounts of evil-doers (in controlled settings, such as South Africa'sTruth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC]) ultimately lead to healing andreconciliation; and the belief that "too much truth" undermines, even endangers, the return to civility. Payne argues for what she terms "contentiouscoexistence."