I am curious about textual sources for the history of 'madness' and its treatments or reception in Islamic thought and medicine, both classical and contemporary. I would also be interested in sources on the reception and use of psychology in the Islamic world. Can anyone help?

-- Maggie Schmitt (mschmitt@cyberia.net.lb), October 25, 2001

Answers

[From http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/suggestions.htm.]

"For some general background on Islamic philosophy (which reached its pinnacle earlier than did Western Medieval philosophy), there is a good, short, general article on Medieval Islamic philosophy (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01674c.htm) -- including a concise passage on their interpretation of Aristotelian psychological thought -- in the Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/). Avicenna's commentary on Aristotle's De anima (Liber de Anima seu Sextus de Naturabilis) is among the most influential works of the Age, even among later Christian philosophers, but I have been unable to find an English translation of it. Avicenna's own summary of this material -- the Kitab al-najat -- has been translated by F. Rahman, however, in a 1952 book entitled Avicenna's Psychology. The main text runs about 45 pp. in length, chapter 3 contains the most direct statement of the "ventricular theory," and the final few chapters contain the most important Islamic departures from authentic Aristotelianism."

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), October 26, 2001.

Maggie,

You might get some help from members of the Sufi Psychology Association, which you can find on the web at

http://sufi-psychology.org/

The Sufis are the mystics in Islam, but I'm sure they could tell you a lot more about the extended Islamic literature. The Sufi Psychology Association meets annually. I attended one of their meetings, as a guest speaker, and found it a richly rewarding experience to be surrounded by Farsi-speaking psychologists engaged in an amazing range of psychological research and practice.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 26, 2001.

Maggie,

I dug into files from my class on dreams, for the following references on Islam/Sufism and deam interpretation--you might find that interesting.

Dreams in Islam, the Muslim World

Al-Akili, Muhammad M. (1991). Ibn Seerin's dictionary of dreams according to Islam. Pearl Publishing.

Azam, U. (1992). Dreams in Islam. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance.

Corbin, H. (1966). The visionary dream in Islamic spirituality. In G. E. von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The dream in human societies (pp. 381-407). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Fisher, H. J. (1979). Dreams and conversion in Black Africa. In N. Levzion (Ed.), Conversion to Islam. New York, NY: Holmes and Meier.

Fahd, T. (1966). The dream in medieval Islamic society. In G. E. von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The dream in human societies (pp. xx- yy). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Grunebaum, G. E. von. (1966). Introduction--The cultural function of the dream as illustrated by classic Islam. In G. E. von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The dream in human societies (pp. 3-21). Berkeley: University of California Press.

LeCerf, J. (1966). The dream in popular culture: Arabic and Islamic. In G. E. von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The dream in human societies (pp. 365-379). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Matar, Z. (1990). Dreams and dream interpretation in The Faraj Al- Mâhmûm of Ibn Tawûs. Muslim World, 80, 165-175. [examines 4 dreams from a 13th-century manuscript]

Meier, F. (1966). Some aspects of inspiration by demons in Islam. In G. E. von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The dream in human societies (pp. 421-429). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Musk, B. (1988). Dreams and the ordinary Muslim. Mid-Stream, 16, 163- 172.

Pruett, G. E. (1985). Through a glass darkly: Knowledge of the self in dreams in Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima. Muslim World, 75(1), 29-44.

Dreams in Sufism

Algan, R. (1992). The dream of the sleeper: Dream interpretation and meaning in Sufism. Gnosis, 22, 51-53.

Ewing, K. E. (1990). The dream of spiritual initiation and the organization of self representations among Pakistani Sufis. American Ethnologist, 17(1), 56-74.

Vaughan-Lee, L. (1992). The call and the echo: Sufi dreamwork & the psychology of the beloved (E. K. Helminski, Ed.). Putney, VT: Threshold Books.

Vaughan-Lee, L. (1994). In the company of friends: Dreamwork within a Sufi group. Inverness, CA: Golden Sufi Center.

Vaughan-Lee, L. (1998). Catching the thread: Sufism, dreamwork & Jungian psychology. Inverness: Golden Sufi Center. [Originally published by Threshold, 1992]

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 29, 2001.