Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve is a psychiatrist at Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris and author of several books on the links between psychiatric disorders and social difficulties.
This testimony is that of a young woman who comes from Tunisia to complete her psychiatric studies in France where she builds her professional and personal life.
Based on the life story of psychiatrist Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve, and on her clinical experience, the book suggests "the voice of an immigrant Arab who loves France and that of a Tunisian woman who loves her country of origin."
While it is not always easy to be a foreigner in France — to be "a French Arab" — it is not always easy to be "an Arab" in one's own country, or to be French elsewhere, or even to be a stranger anywhere in the world.
Many people of diverse origins refuse to choose between two cultures, but they must then overcome all kinds of prejudice. Why should one justify oneself in the eyes of others by rejecting a part of one's own being? Having two cultures to call upon is a wealth worth sharing. Dialogue often shows that our concerns are the same: human. Just like our defects and our qualities.
A call for more curiosity and exchange to know each other better and, with that, to suffer less.