Of the many books ascribed to him in the
al-Fihrist by
Ibn al-Nadim, one can note
The Excellency of Mathematics and his
On Certitude in Astrology. His
Figures of the Climates (
Suwar al-aqalim) consisted chiefly of geographical maps. He also wrote the medical and psychological work,
Masalih al-Abdan wa al-Anfus (
Sustenance for Body and Soul). A modern scholar describes the bulk of his works as "more than 60 books and manuscripts, meticulously researching disciplines as varied in scope as geography, medicine, theology, politics, philosophy, poetry, literature, Arabic grammar, astrology, astronomy, mathematics, biography, ethics, sociology as well as others."
Figures of the Regions His
Figures of the Regions (
Suwar al-aqalim) consisted chiefly of
geographical maps. It led to him founding the "Balkhī school" of terrestrial mapping in
Baghdad. The geographers of this school also wrote extensively of the peoples, products, and customs of areas in the
Muslim world, with little interest in the non-Muslim realms.
Sustenance for Bodies and Souls The second part of this manuscript is known as Sustenance for the Soul.
Principles of Interaction His balance between technical terminology and common ethical sense could be found in his monograph where he talks about the interaction between the elements of the body, seasons, and the traditional "non-natural" health elements, such as food and sleep.
Cognitive and medical psychology and cognitive therapy Abu Zayd al-Balkhi was the first to differentiate between
neurosis and
psychosis, and the first to classify neurotic disorders and pioneer
cognitive therapy in order to treat each of these classified disorders. He classified neurosis into four
emotional disorders:
fear and
anxiety,
anger and
aggression,
sadness and
depression, and
obsession. He further classified three types of depression:
normal depression or
sadness (
huzn),
endogenous depression originating from within the body, and reactive
clinical depression originating from outside the body. He also wrote that a healthy individual should always keep healthy
thoughts and feelings in his mind in the case of unexpected emotional outbursts in the same way
drugs and
First Aid medicine are kept nearby for unexpected physical
emergencies. He stated that a balance between the
mind and
body is required for good health and that an imbalance between the two can cause sickness. Al-Balkhi also introduced the concept of
reciprocal inhibition (
al-ilaj bi al-did), which was re-introduced over a thousand years later by
Joseph Wolpe in 1969.
Psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine The Muslim physician Abu Zayd al-Balkhi was a pioneer of psychotherapy,
psychophysiology and
psychosomatic medicine. He recognized that the
body and the
soul can be healthy or sick, or "balanced or imbalanced", and that mental illness can have both
psychological and/or
physiological causes. He wrote that imbalance of the body can result in
fever,
headaches and other physical illnesses, while imbalance of the soul can result in
anger,
anxiety,
sadness and other mental symptoms.
Depression al-Balkhi recognized two types of
depression: • one caused by known reasons such as
loss or
failure, which can be treated psychologically through both external methods (such as persuasive talking, preaching and advising) and internal methods (such as the "development of inner thoughts and cognitions which help the person get rid of his depressive condition"); and • the other caused by unknown reasons such as a "sudden affliction of sorrow and distress, which persists all the time, preventing the afflicted person from any physical activity or from showing any happiness or enjoying any of the pleasures". He thought this was caused by physiological reasons (such as impurity of the blood) and could be treated through physical medicine.
Managing fear Knowledge of the cause al-Balkhi quotes a saying that "most of the terror comes from anticipation of the terror" and advocates being informed and realistic about the true nature of a concern. =====
Exposure therapy===== He advocates 'forcing oneself to repeatedly expose one's hearing and sight to noxious things' and to 'moved again and again near the thing it is scared of until it becomes used to it and loses its fear.
Core emotions al-Balkhi wrote that anxiety and distress were at the core of all harmful emotional symptoms (e.g. anger) and that happiness and joyfulness were the root cause of all positive emotional states (e.g. tranquility, pleasure and delight).
Sexual attributes While the topic of sex is more widely discussed today, al-Balkhi explored the subject in detail, specifically various sexual attributes and the affects that they have on an individual. A specific talking point that he mentioned in his work was the act of remaining
abstinent. By doing so, an individual subjects themself to physical ailments, since the act is deemed by him to be "unnatural". He also recommended a specific diet and to abstain from taking medications that were believed to enhance sexuality as a means to treat sexual impotence. == Politics ==