Ayhan Songar

Ayhan Songar (1926–1997) was a Turkish academic and psychiatrist. He is also known for his activities in sufism, music, cybernetics and photography. He was part of the conservative think thank Intellectuals' Hearth (IH) and headed the Green Crescent.

Early life and education

He was born in Gönen, Balıkesir, in 1926. His father was colonel Nazmi who participated in the Turkish War of Independence, and his mother, Fevziye Peyman Hanım, was a niece of Rahime Perestu Sultan who was the spouse of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I.

Songar graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Istanbul University in 1950 and completed his training in psychiatry in 1953. One of his lecturers was Mazhar Osman.

Career and activities

Following his graduation Songar joined his alma mater as a research assistant. He was promoted to associate professor in 1956 and became a full professor in 1962. He founded the Department of Psychiatry of the Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine at Istanbul University. He headed the department for thirty four years. He employed Turkish classical music to cure his patients and founded a music therapy unit in the clinic at the university. He taught psychiatry, parapsychology, cybernetics and biophysics in the Faculty of Medicine.

Songar became a member of the conservative think thank called Thinkers Club () in 1962 which was the precursor of the IH. He was among the founders of the IH and served as its acting president between 24 December 1982 and 4 April 1984. He was also a member of the Association for the Expansion of Knowledge () which publicized the Turkish–Islamic synthesis developed by the IH.

Songar was the head of the Observation Specialization Department at the Forensic Medicine Institute and was also a member of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporations board of directors. As of 1988 he was the president of the Turkish Psychological Association.

Songar was involved in the establishment of the Turkish Literature Foundation. He served as the president of the Green Crescent.

Songar published a weekly column in the daily newspaper ''Tercüman'' from 1986 and then contributed to the '' Türkiye'' newspaper where he first wrote weekly from 1989 and daily from 1991 to 1997. He was also among the contributors of the ''Hareket'' magazine. He played the oud and oboe, and wrote lyrics. He was author of many books which are about diverse topics such as cybernetics, energy and life.

Views

Songar was a follower of the neo-spiritualism and was influenced from the views of Bedri Ruhselman, founder of the movement in Turkey. Songar argued that cybernetics was consistent with the Islamic worldview and that it could employed to reduce the radicalism in Turkish society. For him cybernetic psychiatry was one of the ways to reveal criminal intent among individuals and to eliminate the motivations of political violence, as he claimed that political violence was a psychiatric issue.

Personal life and death

Songar's wife, Reyhan Songar, was also a physician. They had a daughter.

Songar was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 1997. One of his visitors on his deathbed was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who was serving as the mayor of Istanbul. Songar died of this illness in Istanbul on 2 July 1997. He was buried in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery next day.

Awards and honors

Songar was awarded by the National Culture Foundation in 1979 and in 1981. He was made a member of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1992.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Songar, Ayhan
20th-century Turkish male writers
20th-century Turkish non-fiction writers
20th-century Turkish physicians
20th-century Turkish journalists
1926 births
1997 deaths
Academic staff of Istanbul University
Burials at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery
Deaths from prostate cancer in Turkey
Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine alumni
People from Gönen
Turkish medical researchers
Turkish male non-fiction writers
Turkish psychiatrists
Turkish Sufis
Turkish academic administrators
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation people
Turkish columnists