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Islam and psychoanalysis surreptitiously share a technical vocabulary dealing with the treatment of the “nafs,” the Arabic term that simultaneously describes the soul, the self, the breath, and the psyche. Moreover, Islam and psychoanalysis both offer solutions for existential problems for the individual while devising larger explanatory systems to decipher the human experience. This course explores parallel themes, overlaps, contradictions, and complements between the two systems by reading classic texts in each alongside one another. Readings will come from Sufism, rationalist Islamic philosophy, the Qur’an, Freud, and more contemporary psychoanalysts.