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Notes on the book by Fazlur Rahman “Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition”
In his book Fazlur Rahman provides a thorough exploration of the way medicine had grown and had been used in the Islamic world. To do this he begins with the introduction to the history of Islam. Throughout this book we find that the relationship between Islam and medicine has been complex and uneven and it continues to be this way in our times. To understand this relationship the author provides a clear explanation of a Muslim point of view on the topics related to illness and medicine and historical facts that have influenced these views, such as general fatalism of the adepts of Islam and the orthodox anti-intellectualism. At the…
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Notes on “Possessing Spirits and Healing Selves. Embodiment and Transformation in an Afro-Brazilian Religion”
a book by by Rebecca Selligman This book describes an ethnographic study of the psychophysiology of Candomblé mediumship. Combining ethnography and psychophysiology proved to be hard, and the author describes several obstacles, including the difficulty of maintaining a balance between recruiting a large enough sample for the study to be valid and building a trusting rapport with the participants. The central premise of the book is that the process of self-transformation in Candomblé spirit possession mediumship is a process with the potential to heal both mind and body. This idea is based on the finding that all mediums that the author interviewed for the study had come to become mediums…
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Notes on the article by Joseph A. Adepoju “A Study of Health Beliefs and Practices of the Yoruba”
The study presented in the article describes in full the dualistic approach to treating illness. We see how the spiritual and physical treatments become complementary to each other within the Yoruba community. This approach is common not only for the immigrant community but also to the Yoruba living in Nigeria – there are always two sides seen in an illness – a physical and a spiritual, and both must be treated with equal importance. The holistic approach to healing in the Yoruba community is described in the quote below: “The practice of magic and medicine is comprehensive and holistic in nature and encompasses the healing of the body, mind and…
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Notes on “Five Element Accupuncture”
an article by Moss The article explains in detail how the Five Element acupuncture is used to treat various diseases and illnesses. While there is much said about the approach, the most important point here seems to be that the emphasis is always on the person as a whole, including his Mind, Body, and Spirit – these concepts are inseparable. The article describes the interdependence between the Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, metal, and Water) which divide the human experience into 5 distinct groupings. The groups consist of organs, diseases, mental health issues, and spiritual issues, so that these Elements act as maps that reflect all levels of human function.…
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Notes on the article by Jaswinder Singh Sandhu “The Sikh Model of the Person, Suffering, and Healing: Implications for Counselors”
The article is aimed at educating western counsellors about the belief system of Sikh population. The author describes the problem of neglect of the culture-specific belief systems in general as potentially overlooking the important healing resources for that particular population. He stands for developing a more flexible approach in counseling that would view “foreign” religious beliefs as equally valid. The quote below proposes a good example of the core difference in the Eastern and Western views of the person and the world. “The Western model of psychiatric illness and mental health is premised on a mindbody dichotomy, rigid adherence to a classification system, and definite distinctions between psychology, religion, medicine,…