Osama El-Rady ( ar, أسامة الراضي) (

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

1930–October 30, 2005) has been called the founding father of modern

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. After his early schooling in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, El-Rady received an MD degree from

Ain Shams University Ain Shams University ( ar, جامعة عين شمس) is a public university located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels. History Ain Shams University was fou ...

, then pursued Western-style psychiatric training in Beirut under

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

auspices in 1965. At that time, the kingdom's approach to people with severe and persistent

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

was overwhelmingly custodial. Appointed director of Shehar Mental Hospital in Taif, Dr. El-Rady undertook to organize formal treatment programs. He expanded this campaign when given charge of all psychiatric units in Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s, opening outpatient psychiatric clinics. El-Rady strongly advocated adapting Western psychiatric approaches to Islamic tradition and culture. Together with Dr. Gamal Abou El-Azayem and Prof. Rasheed Chaudry he helped found the World Islamic Association for Mental Health (WIAMH) and became its first president.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rady, Osama 1930 births 2005 deaths Ain Shams University alumni Saudi Arabian psychiatrists 20th-century Saudi Arabian physicians