Siha wa Sumoud (Health and steadfastness): Reconceptualizing Mental Health in the Context of Gaza

Georgetown University graduate student Aisha Jitan speaks with Palestinian psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer Dr. Samah Jabr on the subject of mental health in Gaza while challenging Western ideas of how trauma is held and carried in one's body. By drawing upon her experiences as a health care practitioner, the director of the mental health unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and a trainer of mental health professionals in Gaza, Dr. Jabr sheds light upon the deep-rooted effects of living under Israeli occupation and in the case of Gaza, siege. Dr. Jabr's insights are useful for application beyond the case of Palestine, as she radically challenges notions of how mental health ought to be treated under conditions of injustice and oppression and how healing work can be used toward the liberation of a people.

Guest Bio Dr. Samah Jabr is a Palestinian Jerusalemite psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer. Since 2016, she has been Chair of the Mental Health Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and has written columns about the psychological consequences of the Israeli occupation in Palestine since the 2000s. Inspired by anticolonial psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, her areas of interest include mental health, colonialism and universal human rights.