CHAPTER 3: “You Can’t Really Trust Anyone Anymore”: Trust, Moral Identity and Coming to Terms with the Past

Stephana’s question from the quote that opens this chapter encapsulates a pervasive concern with moral identity and moral character. The pseudonym ‘Stephana’ is that of a former Stasi ‘informal collaborator’ and the question is uttered in the context of coming to terms with the past in East Germany. In all former Communist countries the transition from communism to democracy has not only been a time for social, political and economical revival/transformation, but also, and perhaps more importantly, a time of reckoning with the past which entailed a re-appraisal, re-negotiation and, in some cases, re-affirming of personal/political biographies, identities, memories, social relationships. One could argue that this process has entailed speaking “at the behest of a vengeful Other” (Barthes, 1986, p. 291). This Other has taken various social relational and institutional forms: family, friends, colleagues, the communist party, the secret police, the secret police ‘file,’ and so on.