? Psychological examination before marriage .. Does it reduce divorce rates
A new draft law being discussed by the House of Representatives in Egypt over the past weeks on the safety of mental health as a prerequisite before marriage has sparked widespread controversy between supporters and opponents. It increases the complexities of marriage and raises its costs.
The law obliges the spouses to attend a medical examination before marriage, which includes blood analysis, detection of various diseases, and the issuance of a document to this effect to be presented at the time of the marriage contract. One of the most important clauses in it is the obligation of those who are about to marry to conduct a psychological and neurological examination and the secrets of disorders and psychological diseases that either party to the relationship may suffer.
“The whole family” put forward the idea adopted by the new Egyptian draft law and asked a number of experts in psychiatry and family and marital relations about the feasibility of applying psychological examination to those who are about to marry in reducing the phenomenon of high divorce rates , and whether forcing those who are planning to marry with this disclosure will reduce the occurrence of disputes and crimes family:
The necessity of obligating those who are about to marry to undergo a psychological examination
In the beginning, Dr. Dina Helali, expert in marital and family relations, human development and behavior modification and a member of the Senate in Cairo, and the author of the proposal to oblige those who are about to marry to undergo psychological examination and obtain a psychological safety certificate, confirmed that her proposal aims to detect psychological diseases that some individuals suffer in order to define the party The other relates to the psychological state of the person with whom he will be clearly associated, in addition to being a solution to limit the phenomenon of the high divorce rate, stressing the need for the rehabilitation of those who are about to marry to be compulsory and not optional.
Family expert Dina Hilali said, “The practical reality that many families have been experiencing in recent years reveals the need to conduct a psychological examination on both parties to the marriage contract to ensure psychological safety and that the two parties to the marital relationship are free from any neurological diseases that harm marital life and negatively affect the family in the future, as well as On genetic psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder, severe depressive disorder, and schizophrenia,” stressing that the proposal does not prevent marriage because of these mental illnesses, but unfortunately there are many psychological genetic diseases that cause deaths among families, noting that she met many cases and patients. Psychiatrists have hereditary diseases, hallucinations and disorientation cause cases of murder among members of the same family.
Psychological examination before marriage never contradicts customs and traditions and does not offend modesty, but only confirms the extent of the compatibility of the spouses and their ability to live together
Dr. explained. Dina Hilali said that psychological examination of those who are about to marry as a prerequisite for the marriage contract is not a heresy, but rather something that the Malaysian government resorted to during the period of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, to develop a firm policy to prevent the aggravation of the problem of divorce in Malaysian society, which reached its peak in the nineties of the last century and reached A limit of 32%, meaning that out of every 100 marriages there are 32 that fail, which prompted the government to issue a special marriage legislation, according to which each party wishing to marry of both sexes is obligated to undergo specialized training courses within private institutes, after which they obtain a license that allows them to contract the marriage, which It enabled Malaysia to become one of the lowest countries in the world in divorce rates, at a rate of less than 8%, while the files of the marriage contract are not devoid of a document (marriage licence), in addition to medical examinations and the rest of the recognized documents.
Dr. Dina Hilali stresses that the psychological examination before marriage never contradicts customs and traditions, does not violate modesty and does not violate the privacy of those who are about to marry, but only confirms the extent of the compatibility of the spouses and their ability to live together to form a psychologically sound and happy family, and determines the psychological fitness of the person and his ability to Marriage at the moment.
A psychological examination will reveal some diseases that make a person unable to establish a happy family
Dr. Heba El-Esawy, professor of psychiatry at Ain Shams University, agrees with her, and expresses her support for the proposal, stressing that psychological examination is necessary for those who are about to marry in order to psychologically rehabilitate young people for marriage and how to deal with the other party. Healthy and psychologically sound to ensure families enjoy psychological stability and raise indicators of the spread of the importance of mental health education in Arab societies.”
The professor of psychiatry confirms that most of the problems facing spouses are the result of psychological problems, so it was necessary for psychological rehabilitation courses to be mandatory and not optional to solve the crisis of family problems between married couples with different circumstances and social status so that we do not reach intractable family problems, and this matter begins Discovering and recognizing the problem.
She added, "The psychological certificate will be through specialists who assess the safety of the person who is about to marry and his ability to take responsibility for the home and children. The first goal is to raise healthy children to overcome problems and the keys to dealing, and the psychological examination will show some diseases that make the person unable to establish a family. Happy as a result of personality disorders such as narcissism , miserliness, dependence, skepticism, autism, depression and other psychological problems.
Dr. Heba Al-Esawy called for the necessity of preparing programs and seminars to raise awareness of the culture of mental health and to urge the importance of psychological examination before and during marriage to ensure that both parties are informed of the patient’s health status and treatment of the injured if it is proven that treatment is possible and patients are rehabilitated to complete the marriage process.
Psychological examination before marriage may reduce family crimes
For his part, Dr. Alaa Ragab, a family and marital relations consultant and psychological expert in Cairo, supports the new law proposal and says that although family crimes are considered rare, they have become recurring during the past years in a tragic way, but the biggest crime is that the psychologically disturbed father or mother bequeaths their disorder to the children consciously or without their awareness. He continues, “Society no longer accommodates new batches of psychopaths, extremists, or complex patients. The lives of most of the troubled and criminals were due to an educator who transferred to them this negative psychological energy without awareness from the educator or the poor child, so that there would be a new generation of mental patients in the community, so there are inevitably many diseases Psychology is contagious when it is transmitted from parents to children.
He says, “Unfortunately, most families hide the psychological illnesses that afflict their children while applying for marriage, and the result in the end is a divorce after a year or two, and perhaps less. Or two divorced parents, both of whom blame the other for the failure of marital life, and the end result is the children of victims of marital war.”
The psychological consultant believes that such examinations will inevitably reduce the divorce rates because they will reveal problems that may appear to the other party, and he has the right to choose freely before marriage whether or not to complete it, so that one of the parties does not suffer the trauma of mental illness after marriage and his life turns into an endless hell.
https://www.kulalusra.ae/better-life/love-and-marriage/2022/05/29/1113893?fbclid=IwAR0vC1QO9jYlClvM4lek3zxOWNJPTky4cl_ZYFUsQE1FepzJzQCzhzi8AHA