People in the Arab world are increasingly turning towards psychology and psychiatry in a wide variety of environments, undermining the culturalist assumption which perceives of mental health as a Western preoccupation. The global phenomenon of the rise of “psy” expertise has social, moral and intellectual implications for societies in the region that remain underexplored. Crises, wars and revolutions since the end of the 20th century in Egypt and neighbouring countries have fueled the development of mental health policies with the support of international organisations, and have contributed to a change in sensibilities towards psychological suffering.

Egypt offers a privileged vantage point for studying these changes in North African and Middle Eastern societies. The country has a long and rich history of institutional care for the mentally ill, while academic studies in psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis place it at the centre of regional and international networks. The presence of migrants and the country’s openness to NGO intervention in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have encouraged the implementation of international mental health policies. In addition, the study of the implications of these phenomena for Egyptian societies and neighbouring countries is facilitated by the density and diversity of research about Egypt.

The Mental Health working group at CEDEJ is interested in the relationship between the psyche and contemporary Egyptian and Arab societies from the perspectives of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, law, political science and history. Our research focuses on four areas: 1) health policies; 2) the construction of knowledge and the various disciplines relating to the psyche, considered horizontally; 3) psychological care practices and the management of madness; 4) the norms, values, practices, and representations associated with the soul and madness.

The Mental Health working group brings together a wide range of research themes: the economics of mental health, the history of psychiatric care institutions, addiction, exorcism practices, psychology in the workplace, gender, the family, or self-help literature. While we develop our own approaches to the subject, we also value cooperation with professionals working in the field of the psyche, and with people who investigate these themes because of their own experiences with psychological suffering or with dedicated institutions. This field of work encourages synergies with the social sciences on related issues such as health, religion, medicine, epistemology, emotions and subjectivity.