When History is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Stevan Weine; Rutgers University Press, 1999

In 1992, Americans were outraged to watch ethnic cleansing in Bosnia on their televisions but did not know what to do. A young Yale psychiatrist interested in trauma got a call from a refugee resettlement agency saying that Bosnian refugees were coming to Connecticut: What can be done to address their mental health needs?  Dr. Weine put together the first mental health initiatives for Bosnians and conducted the first studies to document the mental health consequences of ethnic cleansing. Later, with Croatian and Bosniancolleagues, he formed the Project on Genocide, Psychiatry and Witnessing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Over the past six years he has treated more than 400 Bosnians, established an oral history archives, worked and traveled extensively in Bosnia and in the Bosnian Diaspora, and spent hours and hours listening to their stories.

Out of that six year journey -- as a clinician, advocate, researcher and writer -- comes WHEN HISTORY IS A NIGHTMARE (Rutgers, 1999), Weine’s searing and thoughtful attempt to learn about ethnic cleansing and what it has done to lives and culture.

Weine, whose grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, grew up in Detroit and was educated at the University of Michigan and Columbia University. He did his psychiatry residency at Yale University and spent three years on the Yale faculty, where he intended to focus his career on urban community violence. But when he saw what was happening in Bosnia, and thought about his grandparents, he decided to do what he could as a psychiatrist to help Bosnians and oppose ethnic cleansing.

Like Robert Coles and Robert Lifton, Weine combined psychiatry with social inquiry and community advocacy. He started a testimony project for survivors to tell their stories, which has become a model for others. Working with Bosnian families and community organizations, he developed the innovative CAFES project, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, to help to strengthen Bosnian families. He has also developed a community mental health council for Bosnians. Now these projects are being expanded to address Kosovars, the latest victims of ethnic cleansing.

Dr. Weine is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he is a clinician, researcher, writer and teacher. He is co-founder and co-director of the Project on Genocide, Psychiatry and Witnessing of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also a faculty of ICORC.