Islamic Origins of Psychotherapy: An Introduction

Abstract

Psychotherapy which is usually taken to be a recently developed branch of medicine, had already been highly developed by medieval Muslim physicians. Some of them specialized in it and made a systematic study of psychological diseases and their treatment. After the rise of Islam the Arab-Muslim physicians made trmendous progress in all branches of medicine including psychotherapy. Inspired and influenced by the Quranic psychotherapy-related teachings, they richly contributed to both the learning and teaching of medicine including psychiatry. They also introduced the psychotherapeutic means of treatment in the hospitals built and maintained by them. They also exerted a lasting influence on medicine and psychotherapy in the West through translations of their works in Latin and other European languages. But while their achievements in the fields of general medicine, pharmacy and surgery are adequately acknowledged by some historians of medicine, their contribution to the development of psychotherapy is comparatively little known even to the educated and cultured few all over the world. Some basic features of it are briefly introduced below.