Politicizing Muslim mental health: toward a decolonial framework

There is a growing recognition that mental illness should be taken more seriously within Muslim communities. In this are emerging trends to Islamicise psychology or psychologise Islam, whereby the former attempts to adapt contemporary psychological practices for Muslims, while the latter endeavours to indigenise and establish a psychology rooted firmly in Islamic traditions. Yet a large body of interdisciplinary works has argued that Muslims are uniquely positioned vis-à-vis Nation-States across the Global North. There is thus a need to underscore the significance of the political which underpins the relationship between ‘Muslim’ and ‘mental health’. The political will be explored by addressing three paradigms and their particular relationship to Muslim mental health: neoliberalism, nationalism and securitisation. I argue that Muslim mental health, irrespective of approach or discipline, is unique in its ability to serve power and ensure Muslims remain productive, loyal and low-risk citizens of the Nation-State. Emerging Muslim mental health models may succeed in their stated objective—alleviate suffering or raise God consciousness—but they do not address the political dimension underlying mental health practice itself. I argue that a movement towards decolonising mental health must remain in constant dialectical resistance with dominant ideological paradigms and be rooted in an interdisciplinary praxis established upon the Islamic paradigm of trusteeship (waqf). This ensures suffering is neither commodified nor compartmentalised outside of the wider Western Muslim experience.

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