doi.org
Fanon on Guilt and Violence - published on June 13, 2026
This essay examines the role of guilt in Fanon’s psychiatric examinations under conditions of civil war, in The Wretched of the Earth. I argue Fanon’s discussions of guilt help clarify his remarks on the necessity or legitimacy of violence. The paper will claim Fanon is committed to the idea that the conditions for metaethical intelligibility are obfuscated in the colonial situation. Only violence, as a force that fosters possibility, can provide the conditions for arbitrating on moral appropriateness. It is this necessity and what its occurrence facilitates that, ironically, provides the ability to assess morally that which by this point has already occurred. Fanon uses guilt, not only as a species of reproach but also redress, that serves as a powerful example of this kind of moral assessment. This clarifies Fanon’s view that violence as a species of practical conduct can serve as a contingent precondition for moral reflection.
