The November 13 trial is entering its final phase, and many victims and families of victims testify to what it meant to them. But these attacks also upset the whole of society.
franceinfo: Do you think that this trial is also important at this level, that is to say for all of us?
This trial is important for all of society because we have all been deeply affected by these attacks. We have not lived like the victims, the carnage of the Bataclan hall or, like their families, the wait, in anguish, for a loved one who never returned, the pain, the mourning.. .
But November 13, something for everyone, changed, because the terrorists attacked, beyond the victims, life itself: the desire to live and take pleasure, in positing that it could be punished by death. This had effects in reality: it was necessary to restart life; but also effects in the heads.
What effects in the heads?
Each of us thought, rightly, that he could have been among the victims and therefore felt, from there, something of the amazement, the terror, and the helplessness which characterize the experience of a trauma. And, for everyone it was (even if of course, it is not comparable to what the victims experienced), very violent.
And that sometimes had even deeper repercussions. In some people in analysis, for example, the idea of being threatened for pleasure has brought back educational repressions from their childhood. And fears of punishment – parental or divine – which were added to the fears of reality. So this trial counts, for everyone, and it certainly has therapeutic effects for everyone.
Effects of what order?
A day like November 13 turns the world into a lawless jungle, where anything can happen, and that’s terrifying. But a trial restores an order of the world, and a law which is that of a civilized society. You don’t kill the accused on an “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” basis; they are judged by granting them lawyers and the possibility of explaining themselves.
Their presence is important, because it brings down the idea of an anonymous and all-powerful force that could strike anywhere, like in nightmares. The length of the debates, which allows everything to be addressed, gives the victims, their families, but also society as a whole, the time necessary for an elaboration, which does not erase the horror and its effects but which helps to “digest” less badly.
And then the grouping of victims, many of whom say he helped them, shows the therapeutic nature of the collective. Faced with the suffering that comes from society, coming together to support each other is essential to find bearings and strengths that help to rebuild. And, at a time when we are preached so much about individualism, it is important to hear it.