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Can
we Apply Western Psychology to Muslim Populations?
Syeda
Tatheer Zahra Shamsi
When
we think about applying traditional western
psychology to Islamic populations, we immediately encounter difficulties,
ideological as well as practical difficulties.
Its not always possible to transfer these psychological notions to groups for
whom the theories proposed don’t
fit
neatly within the framework they have been brought up in. We recognize that its
very important for Muslim groups to have forums which will encourage
individuals to express their problems and which will allow them to be
comfortable, as their needs aren’t
always catered for by the health services or social services here. And this
often inhibits many from coming forward for psychological services. In fact
there are a number of reasons for people covering up or attempting to hide
psychological problems, or the emotional distress they’re
experiencing. Unfortunately
in the age where counseling services are so effectively used in western
countries, all across Europe and North America,
it’s
still considered taboo in our communities to access these services.
This
issue of services not catering for our needs is now becoming widely recognized.
And the good news is that there are many centers which are becoming established
here in a multi-ethnic community because of equal opportunities policies and
because of cross-cultural research; research with different cultures is showing
that what may be an effective form of treatment for people from one culture may
not be beneficial
for people from another culture because a lot of the issues may not be relevant.
The positive outcome here is that there is an increase in research to show us
that peoples’
constructs,
the ways in which they view the world, are different and can’t
always be generalized. Just to give an example, there have been studies carried
out with black African individuals who were diagnosed with a psychiatric
ill-ness,
schizophrenia;
but when this same group of people was assessed by psychologists and
psychiatrists from their own culture, they discovered that the behavior they
were exhibiting which led to this diagnosis, was considered perfectly acceptable
in their own cultures. So the con-sequence of such a diagnosis of course is that
they would be receiving psychotropic medication,
drugs
for the treatment of mental disorders which they didn’t
have, which have no organic basis. And
this had in fact been found to be happening, a lot of research has uncovered
this sort of practice.
So
as a consequence of these sorts of difficulties,
many centers and organizations have arisen which are dealing with specific
areas, such as bereavement, or care for the elderly, marital problems and many
others. But they’re
often isolated and working alone;
and they’ve
usually come about in response to cultural and lingual needs of particular
communities, such as the Afro-Caribbean community,
or
the Asian community for example, which are considered homogenous groups so they’ve
been put together on the basis of their ethnic back-grounds.But
they’re
not necessarily fulfilling
the requirements of our faith, so its not an ideal situation.
We
can very briefly
look at the psychological framework within which western practitioners are
working. We know that psychology is basically considered to be the study of the
human mind and behavior.
Its
a broad discipline which not only relates to how psychology is commonly
portrayed in the media - as dealing with mental illness - but covers all sorts
of other issues relating to human development, such as
learning, and human distress, relationships,
marital issues, the upbringing of children. Although its a relatively new
western science, psychology has firmly
established itself as a discipline with rigorous scientific,
empirical support. Ironically, the
literary definition
of the word psychology, the origin of the word is, the discourse or the study of
the soul or the spirit.
Psychology
is regarded as a natural science, involving the study of the laws of nature, of
human spirituality, but is this really the case?
Problems
with Western Psychology
Someone
who has questioned this very fiercely
and has attacked the very basis of western psychology is Dr Malik Badri he
is an experienced Muslim
psychotherapist and professor of psychology from Sudan. The following quote of
his illustrates his views: “They
will claim (he’s
talking here about western psychologists)
that their theories about human behavior are based purely on empirical, unbiased
observation. They will even claim to take a neutral stand with respect to the
existence of God and the place of religion and to apply an objective non-biased scientific
approach in
studying spiritual ”.
Clearly
when we’re
talking about nature, about the nature of man, we can’t
take him and study man, his problems,
his needs, as a distinct entity, removed from his Creator. The great ‘alim
Syed Mujtaba Musawi Lari has done a lot of work in this area and he emphasizes
that man has spiritual needs in the same way that he has physical needs, and we
need to consider them. Faith provides an individual with strength against
despair and hopelessness. If we consider the example of
depression, its a debilitating illness, and the majority of us would have
experienced depression at some stage. But there are different types, and it can
also be considered to be on a continuum with varying degrees of severity. In the
most severe cases the ultimate end would be suicide or a suicidal attempt.
Imam
Jaffer al-Sadiq (AS) has said that a true believer can never commit suicide.
We
all experience psychological difficulties,
but our faith provides us with a motivating force to help overcome them. That’s
not to say that hoping and wishing that the situation will change is enough, we
really need to take positive action too. Often we also need professional
assistance. It’s
essential especially with individuals diagnosed with serious clinical
conditions, that they continue
to receive professional
help. For us there isn’t
a dichotomy between faith - our religious convictions - and scientific
study and scientific advance. This is where we as Muslims diverted from the
traditional Judea – Christian notions of faith. For a Muslim, knowledge and
science reinforce faith rather than oppose it. The result of this belief was the
golden age of science and faith in Islamic civilization, in which science and
knowledge made huge advances by Muslims reaffirming
their belief through scientific
discovery. In contrast,
Psychology
is regarded as a natural
by
Muslim thinkers throughout history.
Psychological
Practice for Muslim Psychologists
So coming back to the dilemma of the Muslim psychologist, can we effectively continue to use the principles of psychology in the treatment of our Muslim patients, given that psychological principles are based upon western research and ideals? How applicable is psychology to us? Well there are many schools of thought in psychology, many ways of explaining human behavior. They’re not all couched within an atheistic, materialistic frame-work; we can briefly look at an example: the humanistic school of thought is a fairly modern movement in psychology which started to emerge in the 1950s and 60s – the humanistic model features quite prominently now in psychotherapeutic intervention, its quite commonly used.
The humanistic school focuses on a positive concept of human nature, and emphasizes the individual’s uniqueness. Humanistic psychologists take account of the individual’s self and subjective inner experiences, such as the concepts of values, faith and self-direction.
And
this is where it
differs from other, more traditional schools of thought which are based on the
belief that human beings are really the same and that their behaviour is
determined, pre-determined by certain forces beyond their control. The
humanistic view,
just as its name suggests, looks at the person as an individual, as a human
being; what is it that motivates
this person, what are the things that makes this person unique? They take
account of the individual’s
personal goals, and their aims for achievement. And in this respect, the
humanistic psychologists
are the closest to encompassing the religious dimension--to working with the
spiritual aspect of the person as well.
As
we’re
growing in a multicultural society, we’re
seeing a synthesis, this combining, of theories, to try to arrive at the most
suitable model which will be relevant for most people from different backgrounds
–
although
again the situation isn’t
ideal because the paradigm or the framework within which we’re
working isn’t
Islamic.
So
I was really fortunate when I had the opportunity while I was in Iran to
interview one of Iran’s
leading psychologists Dr Parveen Debajnia, as I was interested in psychological
practice in a country completely guided
by Islamic principles. She was very proud of the modern teaching and research
facilities that they
had in the new university hospital in Qom and she discussed the therapeutic
intervention, how they worked with patients, and advances they’d
made based on scientific
research within an Islamic framework.
And
you’ll
find
many examples of the type Dr Debajnia discussed with me in the practice of Malik
Badri in Lebanon, in Sudan and in Saudi Arabia. Just to illustrate, he gives an
example of one of his female patients who had been admitted for anxiety and
depression, and she was experiencing phobias –
displaying
undue, irrational fears. She had been seen by other psychologists in the
hospital but she wasn’t
responding to any of the types therapy that they was using –
nothing
was effective.
When
Malik Badri began working with her he began reciting a relevant verse of the Qur’an,
she immediately responded and broke down in tears –
this
led to the discovery of a lot of other problems which she had been hiding, she
confessed to them straight away –
and
this was what had been hindering her
recovery before,
as the previous psychologists weren’t
aware of these other really important underlying factors. So when these came to
the fore Malik Badri was able to work on these issues effectively using
traditional psychotherapeutic techniques, behavioural methods. And
Alham-dulillah this patient made a very dramatic improvement. When he told his
colleague how he had successfully treated her, he expressed his amazement and
said, “I’ve
kept a copy of the Holy Qur’an
in my office
for the last three years and it never once occurred to me to bring it down from
the bookshelf and use it as part of my therapy”.
So
there we’ve
got an inspirational example of how Islamic teachings can guide us in our
scientific
practice; and there are many other such examples.
We’ve
seen then in a very small way how Muslims are able to benefi
t
from modern psychology. Western psychological techniques are not always
reconcilable with Islamic ideology as they have evolved traditionally
emphasizing sound scientific
practice without much regard for consideration of faith. However,
by employing empirical research findings in the light of Islamic teachings there
is strong
evidence that Muslim psychologists can restore spiritual vigor to the
essentially materialistic western psychology.