Ep. 9 | Exploring Spiritual Psychology in Islamic Thought | The Insight Interviews

Timestamps listed below An informative discussion with Dr. Mojdeh Shariatmadari, Founder and Director, Alaa Cultural Institute Tehran. The topic of discussion will be the role of psychology and its study in Islam and Shi'ism. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series ‘The Insight Interviews’, promises to be an engaging conversation. 00:00 / Beginning 00:29 / Guest Introduction 02:15 / Discussing the link between psychology and spirituality 03:13 / Her journey to Islamic and Shia spiritual psychology 05:54 / Looking at the Shīʿī duʿāʾ corpus 07:02 / What is spiritual psychology? 08:01 / The Age of Insanity: Modernity and Mental Health by John F. Schumaker 09:49 / Breaking down spiritual psychology 10:10 / Divine love in Shīʿism and its connection to the subject 10:20 / Viewing Wilāya as a divine friendship 10:55 / Love of ʿAlī is a part of faith - ḥubbu ʿAlī min al-īmān 12:27 / Whoever loves you (the infallibles), loves God - al-Ziyāra al-Jāmiʿa al-Kabīra 12:52 / Wilāya as the most significant differentiating factor in Shīʿī spiritual psychology 15:44 / The role of duʿāʾ (supplication) in spiritual pyschology 17:19 / Is there such a thing as "Islamic psychology" and how can we define terms? 21:47 / Discussing the earliest written work on Islamic spiritual psychology 24:35 / Abu Zayd al-Balkhī and his 9th century work on mental health 27:24 / What is unique about the Twelver Shīʿī concept of saʿāda (flourishing) 30:16 / Theory of the personality in Islamic spirituality 32:14 / What exactly is spiritual flourishing? 34:17 / Dr. Martin Seligman's theory of well being 36:15 / Mourning for Imam Husayn and its connection to well being 43:44 / Loneliness and Islamic Spiritual Pscyhology 49:12 / The relationship between wilāya and inner peace 55:03 / How would Shīʿism treat the concept of grief and loss? 58:15 / Grief treated through the lens of religious history 59:05 / Conclusion The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/