This article proposes to identify the central features of reconciliationand its relation to history and forgiveness. First, reconciliationis shown to be a mode of understanding that makes it possible toaccept the irrevocability and irreversibility of actions and of humanactivity in general. Second, reconciliation is characterized as having a therapeutic or cathartic effect, by means of which experiencesof suffering and pain are overcome, permitting the reestablishmentwithin victims of trust in themselves and in their world,understood as the interweaving of personal relations.