Arabic Cultural Psychiatry

Abstract

hope of explaining certain clinical and psychological features which would otherwise be incomprehensible to non-Arabs. Since the modal characteristics of Arabs vary so much from one community to an-other, the validity of generalisations about Arabs as a whole, like that of the idea of a unitary national character, can be doubted. Unjustifiable generalisations have characterised the Arabs as &dquo;human but not humane&dquo; (66), as hypocritically &dquo;substituting ritual for righteousness&dquo; (74), or as &dquo;granting mysterious and overwhelming power to the one in exchange for total security to the other ( 65). Another source of error in this area is the inadvertent attribution of the personal and interpersonal &dquo;characteristics&dquo; of today’s Arabs to the Islamic code of values and behaviour ( 65, 74). Nevertheless, there are certain widely shared features of general relevance to psychiatry which can be recognised, namely traditional beliefs re-garding spirits and the evil eye, family structure and relationships,

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