Dr. Mohammed Khalil Al Haddad extracted the essentials of his knowledge and experience, dating nearly 40 years back in the psychotherapy of anxiety and phobia, and accentuated them in his inspiring book: Soul Contact.  He wrote the book in charming and plain Arabic, free of specialized medical terms to make it enjoyable and of assistance for every reader.

The readers may not be aware of Dr. Al Haddad’s predisposition with Arabic literature and spiritual Islamic thought. In Soul Contact, we see how his inclinations interlock and engage with his profession as a psychiatrist, where he articulates his deep understanding of the human soul and self-comfort in a graceful style fit for the theme of the book. In the introduction, he explains what he calls a “spiritual insight,” where he principally concentrates more on a patient’s character and ego rather than on the symptoms of his illness – symptoms that for him are mere resultant not origins.

Dr. Mohammed Khalil Al Haddad expounds on his therapeutic methodology: how he identifies the signs and guides the patient to dispose of his fallacies and replace them with hale and hearty conceptions.  He goes a step forward by aiding the patient to switch from his erroneous lifestyle into a constructive one, harmonious with psychological and physical wellbeing; a matter which we will review later.

In brief, he believes that physical and psychological ailments have constructive attributes that may develop the human experience, particularly when an ailment is persistent and painful because it purifies a man’s soul and flesh like a fire refines raw gold from impurities, thus producing a shining, splendid precious metal. However, what is significant is the emergence of the patient, from that difficult experience, as more mature and capable in managing his own snags and hitches with practical, lenient, and tolerant stances towards others within his family and society.

Dr. Al Haddad never believed a patient was inferior to his physician; that was his deep conviction since he undertook psychiatry as a profession. He looks at his patient as having equal rights – that is why he never dictated upon him model questions or static discourses. This made him, after 40 years of practicing, grateful and highly indebted to every patient he treated. His discussions with his patient are built on mutual trust and confidence – just like two amicable friends who depart to meet again. He used to emphasize to his patients that they should change from inside, both spiritually and intellectually, and translate that change practically within themselves and into their relations with others.

In Chapter One, Dr. Al Haddad clarifies “anxiety” as a medical term that labels the physical and psychological symptoms generated in humans by life-threatening causes. The symptoms range from fear, palpitation, accelerated breath and hand tremors, in addition to paleness of face, sweating, dizziness, thirst, and fear of loss of consciousness. These are but defensive mechanisms that are created by Almighty Allah to help man guard against danger.

However, a patient may suffer from other idiopathic types of anxiety and phobia disorders that are resident in his subconscious and impede him from living a positive and comfortable life. They may be attributed to negative incidents triggered in the subconscious like: agoraphobia (fear of public places), hodophobia (fear of travel), and elevator phobia (fear of being trapped), etc.

The author describes a patient suffering from phobia saying: “A phobia patient feels severe anxiety in form of different fits, sometimes without any reason. These fits continue for a few minutes, and may continue longer. They occur in the subconscious.”

In the same chapter, Dr. Al Haddad defines two techniques to eliminate anxiety: the first is the psychological analysis approach and the second is the novel method of switching negative thinking into positive thinking in the patient. He describes the application of the novel method in this chapter; however, it is too extensive to review in this article.

Saturated with the spirits of compassionate literature and purposeful thinking, the author explains, in Chapter Two, the common principles of handling and managing fits of anxiety and phobia.

He, first of all, requests the patient to repose and relax to conquer the symptoms of anxiety, and contain and cool them down. He should refrain from saying: “I must accomplish this,” and instead, he should deal with himself graciously and leniently. He is not required to command and control, but instead, he should handle his feelings with delicate and refined manners. What he cannot do today, he will do tomorrow. Negative notions should be replaced by salutary and positive ones.

The advantage of that therapeutic approach is its control of the streamline of physiological motives directed from the body to the rationale mind.   It is simple. If the body is cooled down, anxiety will be mitigated and the patient will be able to confront anxiety and the symptoms of phobia in a much more effective manner. The patient, in this case, feels the problem, acknowledges its presence, adapts to it, and embarks on probing its roots to mitigate its impacts. Dr. Al Haddad always stresses to his patient, in the course of treatment, that what he is dealing with are mere notions not facts; however, these notions impede his well-being. Dr. Al Haddad continues to elaborate on his therapeutic approach throughout the chapter and throughout the book in a captivating style.

In the third and last chapter of the book, he reviews his 15 steps of therapy to reach the final stage of healing and recovery after eliminating the psychological complexes from which the patient suffers. The patient can now enjoy comfortable, optimistic living.

The 15 steps are:

1. Acknowledge the problem: you are suffering from a psychological ailment. It is not a shame. It is similar to a biological illness and needs necessary treatment to overcome.
2. Monitor the internal self-talk of the patient
3. Tolerate feelings of panic and anxiety
4. Tolerate overwhelming notions of distress and tragedy
5. Avoid commanding, controlling, and suppressing feelings
6. Better to be safe than sorry
7. Perform calculated maneuvers and exercise to accomplish good performance, not to target failure or success in exercising.
8. Learn from your failures and engage others - talk about your weaknesses.
9. Benchmark your expectations of the therapy. They should be reasonable.
10. Expect setbacks, endure and be tolerant
11. Lost time can be found again
12. Outline your strengths
13. Communicate with others
14. Resort to Almighty Allah in times of distress

In conclusion, I advise and invite every reader- both those who suffer from phobia and anxiety and those who do not, to enjoy reading that book Soul Contact, due to the flow and sophistication of its style, the depth and influence of its implications, and the scientific psychiatric approach exerted by its author. Certainly, Dr. Mohamed Al Haddad, who has extensive experience in treating anxiety and phobia patients, wrote this book to help everybody enjoy an optimistic, positive, and productive life.