Abstract
This chapter emphasizes the contributions of religiosity and spirituality to psychological wellbeing for Palestinians. It shares examples of the use of spirituality in therapy as an answer to personal tension or loss. It introduces the idea of combining internal motivation of the client with spirituality and religious belief as an external locus of control to benefit client’s wellbeing.
Religious practices penetrate daily life and are highly adopted among religious and secular Arabs from all religions in the construction of their traditions. Oftentimes a trauma causes individuals or families to “become religious” or to “hold for their Islam”. Muslims seem to accept loss immediately; they even “praise God” for it. Often times Westerns misjudge these spiritual and cultural reactions.
The chapter suggests explanations for intersections between political, historical, social, gender, mental, religious/spiritual and psychological factors. Also it offers implications for therapy and social mental health for the benefit of students, practitioners and other professionals who are interested in the influence of spirituality, religion, culture and politics on daily life of Palestinians or in the Arab World. Personal narratives and clinical cases are used to clarify processes, ideas and examples.
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Notes
- 1.
The terminology that describes Palestinians reflects one’s political attitude about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Other names are used include Israeli-Arabs, Arab-Israelis, minorities in Israel, Non-Jewish citizens, among others. This chapter will use the terms, “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” or “Arabs,” according to the context (for further reading on this issues, see Rabinowitz & Abu-Baker, 2005). Since daily life in Israel is highly influenced by Jewish laws, religious and other aspects of the lives of Muslims, Christians and Druze citizens are highly influenced by politics.
- 2.
Arabs live in the Middle East and North Africa in 22 countries, or what is also called the “Arab World” – all share the same culture, language and history. Palestinians are Arabs; some of them (1.2 million) live as citizens in Israel; 3.5 million live in the Palestinian Authority and the rest (about 10 million) live in other Arab countries or in the Diaspora. Most Arabs are Muslims.Christians make up about 10–15% of the Middle Eastern population and about 9% of Palestinians in Israel while Druze areapproximately about 1% in the Middle East and about 8% in Israel.
- 3.
About 2.2 bilion
- 4.
Allah is the Arabic name of God. Muslims believe that it is the same God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
- 5.
For further reading on this issue see Hussain (2011).
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Abu-Baker, K. (2018). Family Therapy With Palestinian Arabs: Building on Inherent Habits of Spirituality for Psychological Well-Being. In: Trimble, D. (eds) Engaging with Spirituality in Family Therapy. AFTA SpringerBriefs in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77410-7_2
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