This is a biography of the life of Dr Eyad El Sarraj, Gaza's pioneering psychiatrist and founder of the Gaza Community Mental Healthcare Programme, written by his son, Wasseem El Sarraj. It is also a history of Palestine with a focus on Gaza. Eyad's life was intimately intertwined with Palestine's struggles so his choices and reactions reflected many of the major historical moments of the last 70 years. The book is an effort to provide a perspective on how the forces around him impacted his life, and how he took control of what he could achieve in an intractable situation. The book is interspersed with Wasseem's own reflections as a mixed-race Palestinian, and as someone who has lived under occupation in Gaza.
About the Author
Wasseem El Sarraj is a British/Palestinian writer and psychologist, living in London. He is the son of the late Eyad El Sarraj, the Palestinian pioneering psychiatrist and founder of the Gaza Community Mental Healthcare Programme.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Ruchama Marton MD,
Preface,
Prologue,
1. Empires and Tribes,
2. The British,
3. The Nakba,
4. Egypt: Collective Joy,
5. Returning to Gaza,
6. London,
7. The Clinician and the Activist,
8. The Gaza Community Mental Healthcare Programme,
9. ‘If you have the gun, you have the rights’,
10. War on Gaza,
11. A talent for hope,
12. The rationality of revolt,
Epilogue,
Afterword by Yasser Abu Jamei, Director of the GCMHP