Asrama: An Islamic psychiatric institution in West Java

Abstract

In Islamic societies, medicine is an integrated part of religious tradition. Originating from Greek Humoral Therapy and based on Arabic Prophetic Medicine, the medical tradition of the Moslem Sundanese in Indonesia is coherently organized according to a set medical belief. For them, illness is not only a physiological disorder caused by humoral imbalance but also a moral and religious disorder stemming from the patient's inadequate religious faith. Treatment of illness will therefore be directed towards a restoration of both physiological and religious order in the patient. This paper discusses the therapeutic process of the Moslem Sundanese psychiatry and examines by means of a symbolic analysis its internal logical organizations.