Psychiatry in Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait, the country with the world's highest per capita income,∗ has a population of roughly 325,000, of whom only half are ethnically Kuwaiti. The original settlers left the Nejd in Central Arabia about 1710 because of a severe drought, and after wandering about for several years with their herds and flocks eventually settled at the head of the Persian Gulf. The country they founded, about the size of Northern Ireland or of the State of New Jersey, is wedged in between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Next to the Kuwaiti, the second largest group of inhabitants is the Bedouins who “are recognizable by their particular Arabic accent, their characteristic smell, and their long hair and beard”, according to a resident of Kuwait City. The Bedouin women can also be recognized easily because the black “thaub” which covers them completely from head to foot is made of solid cloth with narrow slits for the eyes, whereas the “thaub” of the Kuwaiti women has a black veil built into it.