Arab Psychiatry Lecture at Al-Ahliyya Amman University

Psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Habashneh, delivered a lecture entitled “Arab Psychiatry” in the Cultural Forum of the Faculty of Arts in Al-Ahliyya Amman University. Dr. Mohammed Habashneh commenced his lecture by talking about the impact of the Arab psychiatrist Najb Din ibn Hammad Samarqandi in his thesis “Causes and Relationships”. Dr. Habashneh indicated the importance of this historical work in terms of its ancientness and content. The thesis divides mental illness to nine major illnesses and around thirty sub-categories. Medicine historians in the West consider this thesis as the first attempt for classification of mental illness on a scientific and rational basis. Dr. Habashneh also addressed Najb Din method in treatment of “medical black” disease, which refers to panic and anxiety, and the treatment of adoration in a similar manner to the treatment of Down syndrome. Dr. Habasheneh spoke in his lecture about the contributions of Razi, Ibn Sina and other scientists to psychology and psychiatry through Razi book “Spiritual Medicine” or “Soul Medicine” which he considered as the first historic attempt to address psychiatry and psychological diseases in the history of medicine. Dr. Habashneh addressed Ibn Sina genius in treatment of psychiatric diseases. Ibn Sina adopted psychoanalysis and collapse of names method, he noted. Dr. Habashneh demonstrated Imam Al-Ghazali practice in anger management in his book entitled “Refinement of Ethics”. At the end of the lecture, the attending instructors and students discussed the ideas and concepts addressed in the lecture.