Study: Iraqis May Experience Sadness When Friends, Relatives Die
July 25, 2007
Sponsored by CHAPEL HILL, NCA field study released Monday by the
University of North Carolina School of Public Health suggests that
Iraqi citizens experience sadness and a sense of loss when relatives,
spouses, and even friends perish, emotions that have until recently
been identified almost exclusively with Westerners.
"We were struck by how an Iraqi reacts to the sight of the bloody or
decapitated corpse of a family member in a not unlike an American, or
at the very least a Canadian, would," said Dr. Jonathan Pryztal,
chief author of the study. "In addition to the rage, bloodlust, and
hatred we already know to dominate the Iraqi emotional spectrum, it
appears that they may have some capacity, however limited, for
sadness."
Though Pryztal was quick to add that more detailed analysis is
needed, he said the findings cast some doubt on long-held assumptions
about human nature in that region.
"Contrary to conventional wisdom, it seems that Iraqis do indeed
experience at least minor feelings of grief when a best friend or a
grandparent is ripped apart by a car bomb or shot execution style and
later unearthed in a shallow mass grave," Prytzal said. "Last
December's suicide-bomb killing of 71 Shiites in Baghdad, for
example, produced unexpected reactions ranging from crumpled, sobbing
despair to silent, dazed shock."
Iraqis have often been observed weeping and wailing in apparent
anguish, but the study offers evidence indicating this may not be
exclusively an outward expression of anger or a desire for revenge.
It also provocatively suggests that this grief can possess an
American-like personal quality, and is not simply a tribal
lamentation ritual.
Read more at:
http://tinyurl.com/2xxscg
