News roundup: ghoul possession, part deux

[qatarperegrine]

Apparently, I'm not the only one fascinated by the story of witchcraft in last week's Peninsula. Enough other people were fascinated that, today, there is a whole article on how fascinated people were. Apparently, however, the only other person inclined to doubt the possessed-by-ghouls explanation for this woman's illness is a local psychiatrist, whose alternate explanation I have to say is not exactly up to the DSM-IV either. "This lady suffers from a hysterical disease"??? Gag me with a Freudian spoon!

My favorite story of the day, however, is the explanation of why drivers, not car owners, will now be penalized for traffic violations. It used to be that if a car was photographed speeding, the person to whom the car was registered would be issued a ticket. Now, tickets will be issued to the driver of the vehicle. Apparently, this change was made because "many drivers of Qatari households intentionally drive carelessly so that their sponsors pay up the fine for traffic rule violations and accidents." Hah!

In vaguely linguistic news, it wasn't until I started typing the gh of the word ghoul above that I realized that it is, clearly, an Arabic term in the first place.

Comments

[aristopheles.livejournal.com]

It doesn't sound like there's much hope for this woman to get any useful medical treatment. Presumably there is some medical problem. It sounds like there's some other stuff going on too--maybe she wants a divorce, or wants the other family to leave her alone, or is convinced that she's "speaking for the spirit"--but there's no way to guess from here.
Sounds like a real bummer all-around.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

No way to guess from here is right. I'm concerned about any psychiatrist who issues a diagnosis on the basis of a newspaper article! (Especially when the diagnosis is "hysteria.")

Diagnosis

[(Anonymous)]

I don't see your problem with a diagnosis from the newspaper. Dr. bill Frist was able to diagnose Terri Schiavo by a news video clip.

Rabbi_t