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Therapeutic practice exposed society in its many facets to health practitioners providing treatment to women survivors of the Kosovo War. Like a mirror, it provided an image of an alternative reality reflecting in waves societal concerns, not clearly visible because of obstruction. Lurking in blind angles, in dead corners, it made practitioners doubt, feel uneasy and bewildered about the world around them.

Mirroring occurred as practitioners listened to their patients’ stories, attended to their pains, contemplated diagnoses and offered care. It made them realise that the women’s illnesses were much more than mental disorders. Rather, they were powerful […]

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Dr Ukshini,

her back turned towards us in her white doctor’s coat, was busy preparing Turkish coffee over a small gas cooker. Laughing she remembered how American psychiatrists and psychologists had once turned up at her office asking for a training session in coffee making. It was their last visit to the psychiatric hospital in Prishtina before returning to the US after months of training the first cohort of health workers in community-based mental health support. Still chuckling, she carefully poured the flavourful foamy coffee into three cups before handing them to me and Albana, my research assistant.

Settling into our chairs across from […]

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Humanitarian virtues

Wars change life conditions.

There are the sheer number of civilian deaths and the flow of forcibly displaced people. There is family disintegration, weakening of social networks and breakdown of social services. There are material losses, disruption of social economies, dislocation of food production, and the exodus of the workforce. There are high unemployment rates and low wages; and there is poverty.

Wars also create new possibilities.

People reorient themselves towards one another and towards the influx of strangers – the mercenaries, the peacekeepers, and the aid providers. I observed for years how humanitarian aid with its entourage of experts, volunteers, and adventurers profoundly […]

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She is ready. Upright, she stands in front of her modest house. Golden Bag is emblazoned across the small black sports bag she carries in her hand. In the blistering sun, we walk slowly to my beaten-up VW Golf parked in the shade of the rough, unpaved road. Adjusting her headscarf, Ellma[1] squeezes into the back of the car between Marigona – my research assistant – and me. My husband drives.

We are on a mission. We want to recover money that has been stolen from Ellma’s bank account. Two hundred and fifty euros is missing from her meagre widow’s pension […]

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“Women who come from rural areas don’t know how to explain their health problems to psychiatrists like me. When I tell them that their problems have a psychological basis, they say, ‘Why? I have good living conditions’.” As he was adjusting his tie, the psychiatrist reasoned that since the lives of Kosovar village women mainly revolved around fulfilling their basic needs, they lacked a refined understanding of their emotions and psychological pains. With some disdain in his voice, he went on, “They think that having enough to eat and good living conditions is all they need (…)” and illuminated this point by […]

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Excruciating pains slowed many of the women survivors of war down, bound them to their couches, frustrated interactions with their children, and meant that work was left undone. To endure their sickened bodies and be able to carry on, they reframed their pains into health problems and, in this process, created spaces for alternative bodied actions and interactions. Initial reframing usually occurred through unspectacular, unnoticed activities as women in Krusha e Madhe and Pastsel made use of what was at hand: their kitchen cabinet became a source of different dietary options such as herbs that were taken to soothe them, in the […]