Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine

Middle East Monitor
Oct 23, 2022

Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine


This complex subject is presented with meticulous research by Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi in Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022). The book goes beyond the 1948 Nakba to portray how Israel's settler-colonial violence cannot be removed from the Palestinian experience and its psychological impact, and the importance of a decolonial approach by clinicians towards their Palestinian patients in order to understand their psychological trauma as well as contribute towards the collective goal of liberation.

"Psychoanalysis provides a theoretical framework for Palestinian clinicians and for ourselves to understand the experiences of Palestinians and the conditions of Zionist settler colonialism and military occupation under which they live," write the authors in their introduction.

The book presents ample feedback from in-depth interviews with Palestinian mental health professionals; draws upon decolonial writers such as Frantz Fanon; and presents case studies of Palestinian patients.