FREUD ON RELIGION

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FREUD ON RELIGION
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SIGMUND FREUD

• Born 1856 in Moravia
• Died 1939 in London
• Lived in Vienna between the ages of 4 82
• Trained as a medic became interested in
  psychology of neurotics.
• His pet hates were America and religion.

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METHODS OF INSIGHT INTO THE HUMAN UNCONSCIOUS

• Freud used four techniques as windows on the
  unconscious mind
• 1 Hypnosis
• 2 Analysis of dreams
• 3 Free-association
• 4 Freudian slips

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INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

• The interpretation of dreams is the royal
  road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities
  of the mind.
• A dream is a (disguised) fulfilment of a
  (suppressed or repressed) wish. Plus the
  residues of the day.
• Dreams are a kind of code for Freud. If you
  can crack it, you find the problem and can set
  about curing it.

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MAJOR DISCOVERIES

• He claimed two major discoveries
• The Unconscious
• The Oedipus Complex
• He believed that he had come to a deep
  understanding of the human mind and of the
  workings of human sexuality via these insights.

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Structure of the mind

• The EGO the conscious self the obvious everyday
  personality.
• The ID the unconscious self repressed desires
  and memories.
• The SUPEREGO the standard of morality of society
  forced onto a person from the outside, by which a
  person lives.

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Freud and sexuality

• Rumour has it that Freud was pretty obsessed by
  the idea that sex was behind, well, just about
  everything.

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SEX EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!

• According to Freud, childhood traumas are often
  sexual in nature.
• Infantile sexuality is real children are sexual
  beings.
• Sexuality is basic to personality. It refers to
  affection, love and sensuality in the widest
  sense. Libido is his term for sexual drives.

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at this point we should have a suitable image
downloaded from the internet

• Not what you were expecting huh! OK, so we
  are all interested in sex! But icebergs are
  really cool!

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The oedipus complex

• Male children are first attached to their mothers
  and later see their fathers as rivals for her
  love.
• This results in repressed feelings of fear and
  jealousy plus guilt. They surface in puberty.
• A mans goals in life are
• 1 Detachment from his mother.
• 2 Reconciliation to his father
• 3 Find someone to love who is not identical to
  his mother.

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Freud on religion - 1

• Probably wrote more on religion than any other
  topic.
• Major works, Totem taboo, (1913)The Future of
  an Illusion (1927).
• Religion is wish fulfilment the universal
  obsessional neurosis.

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FREUD ON RELIGION - 2

• At its roots, religious rituals are like neurotic
  obsessional acts.
• We have acquired taboos prohibitions.
• In the ritual slaying and eating of the totem
  animal lies the Oedipal wish to kill and devour
  the father.
• Religion is thus mankinds Oedipus Complex.

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FREUD ON RELIGION - 3

• Religion has a historical development
• Firstly animism, secondly polytheism, thirdly
  theism.
• Magic is replaced by religion which in turn will
  be replaced by science.
• Nowadays his theories about the cultural and
  historical development of religion have been
  largely discredited.

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AN ALTERNATIVE SUMMARY OF FREUD ON RELIGION

• Religion is an illusion based on human wishes.
• It is created by the mind to help us overcome
• 1 inner psychological conflict
• 2 stress, which stems from the structure of
  
  society
• 3 fear of dangers of the natural world.

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Religion as an aid to overcoming inner
psychological conflict

• Religion is a form of neurotic illness
• It stems from the unconscious mind
• It results from incompletely repressed traumatic
  memories
• The trauma is invariably sexual in nature
• Therefore religion is an illusion resulting from
  sexual difficulties.

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Can Freuds theory be supported?

• Two elements are essential to the success of
  Freuds account of religion
• 1 That the Oedipus Complex is a universal
  sexual trauma
• 2 That the buried trauma can reappear in the
  form of religion.

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Critical evaluation

• almost all the evidence that Freud presents has
  been discredited in one way or another Michael
  Palmer (Freud and Jung on Religion)
• 1 no evidence for the primal horde
• 2 no evidence for the Oedipus Complex
• 3 Freuds dependence on a narrow selection of
  evidence is a weakness in the theory
• 4 Freuds conclusion that religion should be
  overthrown is an unfulfilled wish of his.

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A conclusion

• Perhaps Freuds account is an example of his own
  wish-fulfilment.
• Perhaps he concocted this rather fanciful account
  of religion as a way of wishing away the reality
  of God and coping with the bad experiences he had
  with religion in his own childhood.

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AN ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF RELIGION
Jung -1

• While Freud, characteristically, established
  causal links stretching back into childhood which
  imply a mechanistic account of human behaviour,
  Jung was concerned to place man in a historical
  context which gave his life meaning and dignity
  and ultimately implied a place in a purposeful
  universe. David A. G. Cook

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AN ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF RELIGION
Jung -2

• Unlike Freud, Jung was in favour of religion,
  thought that religious experiences were in some
  sense real, and held that religion was needed by
  society. Michael Argyle,
  Psychology and Religion, Routledge, 2000. P104
• Those who reject religion are more likely to
  experience neurosis as a result of the remaining
  psychological tensionJung can conclude that
  religion is a valuable entity. Jordan, Lockyer,
  Tate, Philosophy of
  Religion for A-level, STP, 1999, p117

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AN ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF RELIGION
Jung -3

• The details of Jungs psychological theories are
  rather complex and involve a little study. Key
  ideas are those of archetypes, individuation,
  individual unconscious, collective unconscious,
  neurosis, libido, harmonisation, persona
  shadow.
• A good treatment of these in found in the Jordan
  et al volume and you can study this with the
  study guide Mr. Brown has written to go with it.

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AN ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF RELIGION
Jung -4

• Jung replaced Freuds conclusions with the
  following observations
• Religion is a natural process that stems from
  
  archetypes within
  the unconscious mind
• It performs the function of harmonising the
  psyche
• As such, it is a beneficial phenomenon
• The removal of religion would lead to
  psychological problems

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AN ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF RELIGION
Jung -5

• Critical appraisals of Jungs work focus on four
  main areas
• Jungs methodology
• The theory of the archetypes
• Jungs concept of religious experience
• The role of religion within individuation

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Who is right?

• John Hicks conclusion about Freud is worth
  quoting
• it seems that the verdict must be not
  proven the Freudian theory of religion may be
  true but it has not been shown to be so.
• As Jordan et al suggest, this conclusion might
  apply equally effectively to Jung!