Provides information on mental illness in Kuwait and Qatar based on 25 yrs of clinical psychiatric experience. The roles of socioeconomic change and interegenerational conflict in the Arab communities, which have a strong pre-Islamic as well as Islamic cultural heritage, in mental disorders and illness behavior are discussed. Sections address the social and cultural boundaries of mental health and symptomatology patterns, including the fact that somatization is in the foreground of most psychiatric disorders in Arab Gulf communities. Other common mental disorders include obsessional disorders often relating to Islamic religious material, dissociative conversion symptoms, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, drug and alcohol dependence, psychosomatic disorders, and parasuicide. The types of inpatient and outpatient treatment provided in Kuwait and Qatar are briefly described.