Content note: This episode touches on suicide at 8th minute and 17 seconds mark. Please listen with care.

Assalamu alaikum and welcome back to While We’re Here! In this episode, we explore the weaknesses of secular psychology and why some scholars are calling for an approach that makes room for faith.

The Ruh Report: We mark World Mental Health Day with a look at Pakistan, where ARY News reports that one in four people experience mental health challenges. Dr. Mahennor Channa of Jinnah Hospital in Karachi urges people to see sadness, anxiety, and emotional distress as human experiences rather than signs of weakness. We also share news of Shaykh Jamaal Zarabozo’s fall quarter Arabic and Islamic sciences classes, starting Saturday, October 17.

What Have We Learned: A quick recap of Utz’s findings. After reviewing 250 theories of secular psychology, none gave a clear picture of human nature, and her theory points to Islam as offering a comprehensive view of what it means to be human. We also revisit her point that human agency lies in the choices presented to us, not in the choice itself.

Today’s Discussion: We draw on psychologists Scott Richards and the late Allen Bergin, whose 1997 book A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychotherapy argues that spiritual and religious perspectives belong in mainstream mental health care. We also look at philosopher David Ray Griffin’s Religion and Scientific Naturalism, which examines the divide between science and religion. Then we walk through the four weaknesses of secular psychology outlined in Zarabozo’s The Purification of the Soul, and ask what an Islamic approach to psychology could look like.

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Links and Sources

• World Mental Health Day: Experts Urge Pakistanis to Seek Help Without Fear of Stigma (ARY News): https://arynews.tv/world-mental-health-day-experts-urge-pakistanis-to-seek-help-without-fear-of-stigma
• Jamaal Zarabozo (classes and books): https://www.jamaalzarabozo.com/
• The Alienation Between Religion and Psychology (abstract): https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-09105-002
• Allen Bergin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Bergin
• Scott Richards: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/p-scott-richards-phd
• Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts: https://epdf.pub/religion-and-scientific-naturalism-overcoming-the-conflicts.html
• How Patient Suicides Shape the Lives of Psychologists (Psychology Today): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happybytes/202410/how-patient-suicides-shape-the-lives-of-psychologists
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