Psychotherapy With The Arab Patient

Psychiatry in the Arab world, as it has in the rest of the universe, lags significantly behind other medical specialties in its development and progress. Because of its unique ties to cultural and societal structure, it has been at a particular disadvantage in Arab countries. With the exception of Egypt, there were no training programs in psychiatry anywhere in the area until the 1980s. Consequently, most, if not all, of the senior psychiatrists and educators who have the burden of training the new generation have been trained in the West. Biological psychiatry may not have suffered from cultural differences, but certainly therapeutic interaction has.

This book had its early years of preparation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A group of Western-trained psychiatrists met periodically to discuss different problems they encountered in their practice. One of the issues frequently argued is the applicability of numerous schools of psychotherapy to the treatment of Arab patients. A similar question was raised in an American Psychiatric Association meeting in Miami in 1995, when John Racy, MD, presented a paper about his experience in trying to apply classical psychoanalytic principles in psychotherapy to his practice in Lebanon shortly after he finished his training in the United States. Expectedly, his experience was similar.

Probably due to the inherent nature of this treatment modality, psychotherapy research anywhere is hampered by the deficiency of empirical and controlled clinical trials. Our studies in this area are likewise imperfect. Much of the material in this text is experiential. Some was published in local psychiatric journals, mainly the Arab Journal of Psychiatry.

This book attempts to address the adaptations of Western-based psychotherapy techniques (including analytic, cognitive, and behavioral) in working with Arab patients, individually, in couples, or with the family. In doing so, account is taken of superstitions and belief systems, the role of the family, the status of women, and the pervasive influence of Islam.