Suicide in Palestine Narratives of Despair by Nadia Taysir Dabbagh (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2005. 265 pages.)

Abstract

Within the context of Islamic thought, suicide has met both tolerance and
resistance and has spawned two cultural categories: suicide and martyrdom.
Nadia Taysir Dabbagh approaches the issue with a dexterity honed by medical
experience, and her insightful analysis of the two concepts reveals that
suicide is perceived as a private act condemned by society and religion, while
martyrdom is a public act exalted for the greater good. The fusion of theories
plucked from psychiatry, anthropology, and psychology and then coupled
with compelling case studies conducted in Ramallah and Gaza creates a coverage
that treads the line between objective analysis and morbid fascination,
as her research contributes a reasoned account of a startling trend largely lost
in a region immersed in its tumultuous past and present and uncertain future.
This book is the product of an intercalated M.B.–Ph.D. program submitted
to the Psychiatry Department at University College London. The introductory
chapter incorporates an elucidated methodology that identifies biological,
social, and psychological study approaches, with the primary system
of analysis resting on the latter. This person-centred technique perceives suicide
as an individual phenomenon linked to risk factors (e.g., depression,
anxiety, and stressful life events) and associations. Likewise, the social
approach favors a broader angle and associates suicide with such social conditions
as unemployment, domestic violence, and sociopolitical protest. The
biological approach draws a correlation between affective disorders, such as
bipolar disorder, and suicide. Eminent suicidologists, such as Michael Kral,
Silvia S. Canetto, and David Lester, who assert that suicidal behavior should
be placed in its cultural as well as social context, provide the publication’s
theoretical foundation ...