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Abstract

The field of psychology began to develop in the Middle East in the early twentieth century. In this chapter, we present a broad view of the current state of clinical psychology in the Middle East. For each country we discuss the historical development of clinical psychology, academic and professional requirements and training, the number of employed psychologists, and the challenges and obstacles that hinder progress within the discipline. Given the similarities in culture and religion in most Middle Eastern countries, social and cultural factors appear to negatively affect participation in mental health care. Despite this similarity, some differences exist in clinical psychology in the countries of the Middle East. Psychology is an acceptable and common filed in some countries, as they are realizing the importance of the role of psychology in mental health and beyond. In these countries, professionals are working to develop culturally adapted concepts that are widely accepted by the public. Based on our review, we emphasize the need for increased mental health awareness, the development of culturally adapted models of clinical psychology, and the creation of specific policy recommendations to promote and advance clinical psychology in the Middle East. It is important to conduct a systematic investigation to enhance the status of clinical psychology and evaluate current and potential resources to advance clinical psychology in the Middle East.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The countries include: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. We also included the Palestinian territories which are self-administered and have their own health system. There are disagreements about whether Cyprus is included in the countries of the Middle East, but given that they are mainly Greek-speaking and part of the European Union, we did not include them in our review.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the respondents from various countries who took the time to answer our survey and follow-up questions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Asala Halaj & Jonathan D. Huppert

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  1. Asala Halaj
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  2. Jonathan D. Huppert
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Correspondence to Asala Halaj .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Stefan G. Hofmann

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Halaj, A., Huppert, J.D. (2017). Middle East. In: Hofmann, S. (eds) International Perspectives on Psychotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56194-3_11

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