Mental health practices and services in the Middle East have been profoundly shaped by the region's rich historical and cultural context, intertwined with the traditions of major monotheistic religions. This analytical literature review synthesizes existing scholarly research to examine the historical development of mental health approaches, current challenges and barriers, and potential future implications. Tracing the evolution from ancient practices to the establishment of psychiatric institutions and the integration of Western medicine, the review uncovers the impact of the Middle East's unique heritage on its mental health landscape. Current challenges include pervasive stigma, inadequate training for healthcare professionals, limited access to evidence-based interventions, and cultural barriers hindering open communication. The review explores recommendations such as implementing e-mental health interventions, developing national mental health strategies, collaborating with traditional healers, promoting public education campaigns, providing culturally responsive services and training, and garnering robust government support. By bridging knowledge gaps, challenging systemic barriers, and fostering cross-cultural collaborations, the Middle East can pave the way towards destigmatizing mental health, increasing accessibility, and embracing comprehensive, culturally sensitive support for individuals and communities.

Indonesia finally has its own Criminal Code; the country no longer uses the criminal code inherited from Dutch East Indies colonialism. Nonetheless, the New Criminal Code is effective three years after its launch, which is in 2026. By reviewing literature, this article explores the New Criminal Code and its link to relations to terrorism and terrorism financing laws. This article aims to understand how far terrorism is addressed in the Indonesian New Criminal Code. This article may help counter-terrorism practitioners, academics, and policymakers to employ legal instruments as much as possible to prevent terrorism. Regarding the preparation of terrorism, the New Criminal Code outwardly revises what is already listed in the Law no. 5/2018 where anyone who prepares acts of terrorism whether intentionally or unintentionally is eligible for criminalization. There have been several criticisms of the New Criminal Code, such as its overlapping with other laws, the contradiction of regulations stated in the New Criminal Code, and its low support on restorative justice for children affiliated with terrorist organizations.

This paper focuses on an African pluralistic conception of human nature with specific reference to a Cameroonian Philosopher and Theologian Pierre Meinrad Hebga (1928-2008), whose thesis was developed as an attempt to resolve the problems raised by dualism. It should be recalled that the question on human nature since the 17th century had been dominated by Western dualism, in its diverse forms, and it was based on the dichotomy between two substances; a perishable material body; and the immortal soul. The dualist conception of human nature combines both materialist and immaterialist perspectives of human nature. However, it suffered from the dilemma of the dualist problem precisely to know which of the two substances controls the other and how two completely different substances can interact. From this dualistic conception, a question arises to know whether the human body is pure matter. It in this light that Hebga rejects the Western dualism and hence proposes a pluralistic and unified interpretation of human nature from an African perspective based on a tripartite division (a three in one conception); body, breath and shadow which co-exists with each instance representing an entire person viewed from a particular perspective. Likewise, the three instances are relational and cohabit as a composite. This implies that both the body and the soul that form a composite both subsist at death and are hence transcendental. The basic thrust to Hebga’s thesis of this paper is that the human body is not just simple material entity, but material entity informed by breath (spirit), which subsists at death and goes beyond. Human beings are to be thought as beings distinct in kind from purely physical objects. Hebga’s transcendental view of the body in particular and the other non-corporeal instances enable us to understand paranormal phenomena. Hence, throughout this paper our position shall be that of a pluralistic conception of the human being as a composite of the material body, the immaterial breath and shadow. I will further employ Hebga’s tripartite division of human instances to explain paranormal activities as another dimension of human nature. A historical and critical analysis of various secondary sources including Hebga’s philosophical works will help to bring to limelight that his philosophical approach on human nature falls within the armpit of the philosophy of postmodernism, and particularly, deconstruction, for it attempts to disclose the contradictions of classical philosophical concepts; and also tries to open up new and innovative human thinking.