ABSTRACT
This chapter takes as its starting point two givens. Firstly, what makes a psychology Islamic is the metaphysical framework within which its subject (the subjective human self) is situated and studied. Secondly, the difference between Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is precisely the recognition of the human capacity for rationality, and that the nature, purpose, and use of this capacity should not be assumed but interrogated. It therefore focuses on cognitive approaches to psychotherapy from first principles: that is to say, the very idea of the “human being” as denoting an animal governed not merely by instinctual urges, but also an intellectual faculty.
The first part of the chapter explores this fundamental notion in terms of how the perception–decision–response loop manifests in humans as opposed to other living beings, focusing on the nature and role of “intellect” within it. The chapter then explores the concept of the rational intellect, as viewed within the idealist metaphysical scheme of traditional Islam.
Thereafter, the chapter gives an overview of how the intellect has been classically understood to operate within this frame of reference by al-Ghazālī and others. It then elaborates various approaches to cognitive therapy, including a new theoretical model (RIDA) that can be usefully employed within the TIIP framework—which explicitly premises both human instinctual/behavioural urges (nafs) and the presence of a rational faculty (‘aql) that may modify these behaviours. It closes with a case study detailing a practical example of the TIIP cognitive therapy approach, including the use of RIDA.
