Fear of guilt-by-association produced a form of psychological internment among Arab Americans

Evidence

Nadine Naber writes that some Arab Americans experienced “internment of the psyche,” psychological distress due to the fear that one might be considered guilty by association or secretly monitored. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 63

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘internment of the psyche’ as a coined concept capturing psychological rather than physical confinement.
• SEED: The phrase ‘internment of the psyche’ could anchor an essay on how state suspicion becomes internalized as self-surveillance.