Yazidi Mental Health and Collective Trauma and Terror

Abstract

After the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched their offensive in August 2014, they targeted their appalling viciousness on local religious minority groups, such as the Yazidi people, who have been indigenous to Northern Iraq, among other areas, for centuries. After having seized control of the Yazidi settlement areas, they killed numerous men, and kidnapped thousands of women and children whom they treated violently and abused sexually. Those who had suffered this cruelty were mentally destroyed. The Yazidi people were on the verge of being eradicated (Kizilhan and Noll-Hussong, BMC, Psychiatry, 15:198, 2017). Thousands were forced to convert to Islam and, in keeping with patriarchal traditions, the women were told by the terrorists that they were now “dishonoured” and “couldn’t go back in any case” (Kizilhan 2016a).

When treating traumatized survivors of war, like the Yazidi, the therapist must take into consideration cultural and socio-political aspects, individual and collective burdens (such as war in one’s homeland over many generations, gender-specific and societal disadvantages, and imprisonment or the disappearance of family members), their perception of illness, how they deal with their illness, and how they form relationships. In addition to having to accept cognitive behavioural therapy, they face language barriers and individual and psycho-social stress factors. The following contribution discusses the interaction of cultural and psycho-social factors in persons from other cultures who are undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy and makes recommendations based on this.