With reference to the article "A Doctor in Iraq, Watching a Faith Healer at Work" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28cases.html?_r=2:
Stephen writes: >I think Allen may be coming down a bit too >hard on Dr. Afkhami [who writes]: >That disorder is well known to mental health professionals: >once termed hysteria, it is usually touched off or worsened >by a well-defined stressor like an engagement." My first reaction was to think that there was some validity in Stephen’s point, but on further thought I’m not so sure. All Dr Afkhani is referring to here is the stress and possible anxieties that may arise when a young person becomes engaged to be married, which possibility is universal. But my point was that he failed to even touch on the possibility that at least part of the young woman’s fears may be associated with being reluctant to marry a relative chosen for her as determined by her father. I’m not saying that Dr Afkhani should have advocated that the Kurdish healer should have necessarily delved into her situation to find out exactly what was at the root of her anxieties. Unfortunately in such traditional patriarchal societies a young woman who openly rebelled against being forced to marry against her wishes (if such were the case here) might find life virtually impossible, and coming to terms with her situation could be making the best of a bad situation. In fact rebellion could cost a young woman her life if she went against Kurdish tradition, as this UN human rights report in November 2010 shows: “Eliminating gender-based violence in Kurdistan, the conservative northern region of Iraq where ‘honour’-based killings are still common, remains a battle.” http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91216 Given this background, I still find it disturbing that an article in the New York Times should recount the situation of a young Iraqi Kurdish woman in the terms described not only without raising the possibility that she was being forced into a marriage she didn’t want, but even hailing the healer’s treatment of the woman as an example of “patient-centered care”. And I suspect that this Kurdish Women’s Rights organisation would not be happy either: http://www.kwrw.org/ Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ---------------------------------------------------------- From: sbl...@ubishops.ca Subject: Re: A Doctor in Iraq Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:50:26 -0500 On 29 Dec 2010 at 14:22, Allen Esterson wrote: > There´s an extraordinary article that was published in the 28 December > issue of the New York Times: > "A Doctor in Iraq, Watching a Faith Healer at Work" > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28cases.html?_r=2 Interesting article. But I think Allen may be coming down a bit too hard on Dr. Afkhami. Allen says: > Nowhere in the article is there a glimmer of a suggestion that the > young woman´s symptoms may just possibly relate to her being > reluctantly forced into a marriage with a relative. Instead Dr Afkhami > applauds the techniques used to quieten her fears: Afkhami does say: ------------------- "my Iraqi colleague leaned over and whispered a diagnosis in my ear: "conversion disorder." That disorder is well known to mental health professionals: once termed hysteria, it is usually touched off or worsened by a well- defined stressor like an engagement " ------------------ I would call that, although not a laser beam directed at the issue, at least a glimmer of a suggestion that the condition was brought about by a stressful engagement. The problem for Afkhami and for Mullah Eskandar is that they are trapped by their different cultural worldviews. Afkhami sees everything through the filter of psychoanalysis, which is notorious for ignoring an obvious environmental cause of a problem, and going for the alleged "deep-seated", buried one. An example would be ignoring a medical cause of crippling dystonia, and going instead for a fanciful interpretation of the hidden meaning of such symptoms (true case). Mullah Eskandar (and possibly Afkhami also) would have difficulty in recognizing that a marriage match sanctioned by the families could be a source of distress to the prospective bride. Did she not agree to be married? Much easier to blame a jinn, which, as Afkahami noted, "shifted responsibility from her to a supernatural being". The question is: Are there similar examples in Western medicine? Suppose a married woman sees a doctor because of panic attacks relating to fear of intercourse ("frigidity"). She could avoid the attacks by not having sex. But in Western culture, this is not an option which a medical doctor or a clinical psychologist is likely to offer. So they look for a physical cause or deep-seated psychological one based on early childhood experiences. The latter is the equivalent of the jinn theory. Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7550 or send a blank email to leave-7550-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
