USA Palestine Mental Health Network is an anti-Zionist organization committed to education, advocacy and activism that supports Palestinian liberation. To advance our educational mission, we host reading/discussion groups.
There are openings in these 6-session groups for Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022) :
Group 17 : Sundays 1/5/25 - 2/9/25 2 - 3:30 pm EST 1 - 2:30 pm CST
Group 18 : Tuesdays 1/7/25 - 2/11/25 4 - 5:30 pm EST 1 - 2:30 pm PST
Group 19 : Tuesdays 1/14/25 - 2/18/25 7 - 8:30 pm EST 4 - 5:30 pm PST
Group 20 : Thursdays 1/16/25 - 2/20/25 8 - 9:30 pm PST 6 - 7:30 pm HST
This book, co-authored by Professors Lara & Stephen Sheehi, centers the work of Palestinian clinicians to embrace the full subjectivity of Palestinian people who refuse to be solely defined by the occupation and the ongoing genocide. At the same time, the book explains how the occupation has infiltrated the mental health system in Israel/Palestine as well as compromised the mental health of an entire population.
The ongoing racialized violence against Palestinian people is specifically targeting Palestinian children.
There are also openings in these 6-session groups for Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding by Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian (Cambridge University Press, 2019).:
Group III: Thursdays 1/30/25 - 3/6/25 8 - 9:30 pm EST 5 - 6:30 pm PST
Group IV: Wednesdays 2/5/25 - 3/12/25 9:30 - 11 am EST 3:30 - 5 pm CET
The book centers the lived experiences of Palestinian children through their own words and the words of their parents. Many of the experiences are unspeakable and the author documents how memories of violations reside in embodied forms, transcending generations within Palestinian families. The author chronicles how the necropolitical practices of the state of Israel cages Palestinian children physically and emotionally, thieving their childhoods in an effort to eliminate them. She models for us how to maintain constant attunement to the sanctity of the body and is vigilant to all the many ways bodies/spirits are violated.
Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian is a world-renowned scholar. Her research and publications focus on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society, and genocide.
If reading material that centers Palestinian experience is new for you, we invite you to be honest and transparent about your experience while at the same time allowing for others to lead the way – particularly Palestinian voices and the voices of folks of color.
We suggest a donation between $10 - $100, depending on your resources, to participate in the six-session book group. Donations can be made to USA-PalMHN through our fiscal sponsor Empowerment Works here . This is suggestion and not a requirement to participate in book group.
If you are interested in participating, please contact
Christine Schmidt schmidt@usapalmhn.org and
Cheryl Qamar qamar@usapalmhn.org . They manage registration and will send more detailed information to participants in the group.
The Steering Committee
USA Palestine Mental Health Network