How are Suicide Bombers Analysed in Mental Health Discourse? A Critical Anthropological Reading

Abstract

This paper complicates the notion of the suicide bomber as represented in mental health literature. Most authors apply Western psychiatric concepts to understand suicide bombers without accounting for value differences around life and death or terrorism and martyrdom. Accordingly, these researchers replicate arguments to explain individual behaviour from a particular epistemological perspective. In contrast, critical approaches to this literature can expose the worldviews of the analysers and the analysed to devise sounder interpretations. This paper scrutinises mental health discourse on suicide bombing to ask: (1) What do we learn about the authors of suicide bombers in these articles? (2) How do their analyses demonstrate the relationship between knowledge and power? These conclusions can enable researchers to reduce biases and devise behavioural models that more accurately reflect the realities of their subjects.

Islam and suicide: An interdisciplinary scoping review.

“…To mention one example of a remarkable multidisciplinary limitation, a search of Google Scholar using the keywords “Islam,” “Muslim,” or “Muslim American” resulted in academic literature mentioning extremism, terrorism, or suicide bombings. This was true for “psychology,” “psychiatry” (Aysha, 2017; Beller & Kröger, 2020; Ginges et al, 2011; Victoroff et al, 2012), “sociology” (Ali, 2014; Brym & Hamlin, 2009; Tosini, 2009), and “anthropology” (Aggarwal, 2010; Andriolo, 2002; Asad, 2007; Caldararo, 2006; Post et al, 2009; Stack, 2004). These results indicate the strong influence of a biased academic algorithm, selective publishing, and political interest.…”

Medical Orientalism and the War on Terror: Depictions of Arabs and Muslims in the Psychodynamic Literature post-9/11

“…For example, media representations of Palestinians as terrorist suicide bombers disguise the role of Western interests and discount violence as resistance (Morton, 2007). From this angle, the only academic paper in a recent search of the mental health literature not to condemn suicide bombing as pathology or terrorism came from an Egyptian professor of psychology in Kuwait who highlighted the sociopolitical context of previous writers (Aggarwal, 2010). The authoritative position of the West in producing the Orient politically, sociologically, and ideologically continues scientifically.…”

“…In a review of the medical literature from 1966 to 2005, Laird and colleagues (2007) have shown that certain biases recur: being an observant Muslim poses health risks; Muslims remain backward in tradition; and Islam creates "problems" for service delivery. In a comprehensive review of the mental health literature on suicide bombing, Aggarwal (2010) observed that these researchers often locate the pathology of suicide bombers to problems within their host societies. This article extends those insights by providing textual examples of stereotypes to appraise the misuses of culture within psychiatry.…”