Re-orienting secular psychology towards psycho-spirituality: Islamic epistemology, heart(felt) healing, and depression as a soul disorder

Mainstream secular psychology is grounded in an epistemological framework that privileges reason while largely excluding revelation, thereby limiting its capacity to engage the spiritual dimensions of contemporary mental health and socio-political crises. Yet recent decades have witnessed growing scholarly and clinical interest in non-secular epistemologies that affirm the spiritual essence of human nature and its ontological bond with God. This study employs comparative epistemology and normative philosophical analysis to examine the foundations of secular psychological paradigms and argues that their separation of the metaphysical relationship between God and humanity leaves psychology conceptually unequipped to address questions of spiritual well-being. The paper re-engages psychology through Islamic epistemology by examining the nature, state, and development of the soul, affirming that consciousness is seated in the heart; the primordial human essence is spiritual and pure; the soul comprises interrelated faculties of heart, intellect, and spirit; and harmony between the spiritual and material yields a holistic account of intention and action. Depression is used as a case study to expose the onto-epistemic limits of secular psychotherapy. In contrast to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Islamic Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is examined as a psycho-spiritual framework capable of addressing forms of spiritual dissonance associated with depressive states. The study concludes by considering the implications of Islamic epistemology for the renewal of psychology and for the theological reorientation of contemporary academic curricula.