UCLA Medical College’s Division of Psychiatry hosted a chat on April 2 titled “Depathologizing Resistance,” which glorified self-immolation as a type of “revolutionary suicide.”
The speak was delivered by two UCLA psychiatry residents, Drs. Ragda Izar and Afaf Moustafa who appeared to encourage and even have fun suicidal ideation.
Based on The Free Beacon, which obtained slides and video from the speak, the disturbing remarks had been “centered on the suicide of Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. serviceman who set himself on fire in February to protest U.S. support for Israel—or, as Izar put it,’”indigenous Palestine.’”
The Gateway Pundit beforehand reported that Bushnell, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Drive, carried out the stunning act of self-immolation outdoors the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, in keeping with officers from the Air Drive and native legislation enforcement.
Within the video, Bushnell, wearing navy uniform, mentioned, “I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
He then set himself on fire, shouting “Free Palestine.”
“Depathologizing Resistance” implied {that a} break from sane and regular conduct is much less an indication of psychological sickness and extra that a person could possibly be thought-about a “martyr who responded rationally.”
Bushnell had shown signs of psychological misery earlier than he died,in keeping with a police report, and was broadly seen as a casualty of psychological sickness. The presentation argued he is also thought-about a “martyr,” a person in full management of his psychological colleges who had responded rationally to a “genocide” unfolding hundreds of miles away.
“Yes, he carried a lot of distress,” Izar mentioned, in keeping with audio of the speak reviewed by the Free Beacon. “But does that mean the actions he engaged in are any less valid?”
Isn’t it regular, she continued, “to be distressed when you’re seeing this level of carnage” in Gaza?
At UCLA, Izar and Moustafa, who’re practising psychiatrists, argued that self-immolation is an affordable response to geopolitical occasions and that the taboo in opposition to it serves “the interests of power.” By “perpetuating the stigma of self-immolation,” they mentioned, psychiatrists “discredit” resistance to “power structures” like “colonization,” “homophobia,” and “white supremacy,” framing authentic acts of protest as indicators of psychiatric dysfunction.
Can’t consider this must be mentioned, however should you’re contemplating suicide irrespective of the tactic, please DON’T. In case your psychiatrist encourages your suicidal ideation, run as quick as you possibly can. Please, please, don’t kill your self. There’s hope and assist. Suicide Hotline: Dial 988. https://t.co/hQ9TPqZ8Tr
— Joanne Mason (@JoanneMason11) April 12, 2024
