A Comparison of the Nefs in Avicenna and the Ego in Modern Psychology Regarding to Their Relationship via the Phenomenon of Self

Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, is a multi-dimensional and universal thinker. He has broad influence on East and West. He originates his thoughts from Hellenistic era and he inspires from the thoughts to adapt them to Islamic thoughts. However, he reciprocates to the Western culture by contributing their value system. One of the main theory of Avicenna discusses the term “nefs”. The term is compared to the ego which is another term in modern psychology literature. Ego is discussed by many perspectives and there are a vast amount of theories about it. In the paper, ego is discussed regardingly to psychodynamic approaches predominantly. The term of ego and nefs are stands for the term of self in the paper. The paper intends to demonstrate the universal truth of the human being by the aim of revealing the interaction between the West rooted and East rooted knowledge