Religion as Wishful thinkingSigmund Freud
Hui Ka Yu 06013996
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis"
is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind
some of his theories remain widely disputed
The presentation is about……“The future of an illusion” the projection theory of belief in God the similar theory of other expects criticism
“Totem and Taboo” the unacknowledged theory of
unbelief the similar theory of other expects criticism
“The future of an illusion”
The projection theoryof belief in God
The projection theory of belief in God
The most definitive statement of Freud’s views:
“The future of an illusion”
Published in 1927
“The future of an illusion”
‘Religious ideas have arisen from the same need as have all the other achievements of civilization: from the necessity of defending oneself against the crushing superior force of nature.”
Religious beliefs are “illusion, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind…. As we already know, the terrifying impression of helplessness in childhood aroused the need for protection , for protection through love, which was provided by the father…. Thus the benevolent rule of a divine Providence allays our fear of the dangers of life.”
“The future of an illusion”
Freud’s thinking
AtheismReligion = projection of our own
unconscious desireNo reality in the idea of God = one of the assumptions = his personal opinion
Freud’s thinking God = father-figure = a child-like "longing for father" Afraid & trust his protection Protection = religious beliefs Religion = fantastic structure → a man must be set free if he is to
grow to maturity
Freud’s “structural theory”
Three areas of the personality:Id the area of the human
genetic endowment the repository of the
biologically determined instincts
Freud’s “structural theory”
Ego the conscious mind → attempts to reconcile the
instinctual demands of the id with the realities of the external environment
Freud’s “structural theory”
Super ego part of the ego → develop during childhood as a sort of policeman → controls some harmful products of the id
Freud’s “structural theory”
Superego stays around into adulthood as some sort of god or authority image
→ limits the person’s freedom and filling life with guilt
→ prevent the person to be a real adult
Freud’s thinking
Person → faces the ultimate fate of
death, the struggle of civilization, and the forces of nature
→ feels painful and helpless → returns unconsciously to his
own childhood
Freud’s thinking
→ invents an all-powerful father
→ the father fulfills his most insistent need and desires
→ emerges belief in a personal God
Freud’s thinking
Religion = projection of one’s psychology = the wishful thinking of person when he is helpless and seeks for protection
The projection theoryof belief in God
the similar theoryof
other expects
Relative approaches to religion
Feuerbach & Marx Alfred AdlerCarl Gustav Jung (Sigmund Freud)
Triple Star
Feuerbach & Marx Feuerbach: anthropological atheism ( 人本主義無神
論 )
- whishes, fantasies, or the power of imagination are responsible for the
projection of the idea of God and of the whole religious pseudo or
dream world. Max: Sociopololitical atheism ( 社會政治無神論 )
- religion is opium, a means of social assuagement and consolation (repression), a tool for government to govern people.
(Freud: psychoanalytical atheism ( 心理分析無神論 ) )
Alfred Adler 1870-1937
Alfred Adler 1870-1937
Background: - practicing physician - Jewish descent - convinced socialist - once collaborated with Freud but end in departure
Alfred Adler 1870-1937
Approach: - distressed humanity & eternally complete God constant inferiority feeling of distressed humanity; God
is eternally complete, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection.
- man is the center of reality ; God is an idea The ultimate reality is man, man is the center of reality,
it is the function of individual psychology “to make him the center.”; God is the gift of faith.
Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
Background: - A psychiatrst - Christian - Once collaborated with Freud but end in departure
Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
Approach: - dissociates from Freud Jung dissociates himself from the Freud’s work on religion as illusion, says Freud’s standpoint is based on the rationalistic materialism of the scientific views
current in the late 19th century. - psychological-phenomenological He is asking not about historical but psychological truth;
only concerned with the fact that there is such an idea, but not the question whether it is true, the idea is psychological truth.
comments Adler and Jung, in their view of relativized
Freud’s critique of religion in important points. Even Jung’s more friendly approach to religion
still leaves unanswered question: is not religion nevertheless merely wishful
thinking? Dose God exit independently of our consciousness?
“Totem and Taboo”
The unacknowledged theoryof unbelief
“Totem and Taboo”
First published in German in 1913 The symptoms of savage religion,
which means religion in its origin, and mental illness are similar
Mental illness and religion can both be viewed in terms of failure to cope with unconscious forces
Freud accepted the theory that Totemism was the simplest and earliest form of religion Two taboos:“savages“ were prohibited from killing their totem,and also from marring within the same totem clan Then, two further anthropological theories were marshalled to complete the picture
Freud’s thinking
The first theory was that originally the totem animal was sarcally killed and eaten in a solemn annual festival. The second was that primitive human beings, as they emerged from the pre-human stage of evolution, were organized into hordes under the domination of one male
Freud’s thinking
Oedipus complex( 戀母情意結 )
The central concept in Freud’s work. The cause of the Totemism Male personality development, the essential features of this complex are the following: Around age 3the boy develop a strong sexual desire for his motherintense hatred and fear of his fathersupplant him
Around age 5The resolution of the complex is supposed to occurhe can’t replace his father and through fear of castrationidentify with his fatherrepress the complex
The Oedipus Complex is never truly resolved
The powerful ingredients of murderous hate and of incestuous sexual desire within the family are never in fact removed
Oedipus complex( 戀母情意結 )
Details of Totem and taboo
The dominant father kept all the females to himself and either drove away or killed his sons when they become old enough to challenge him
Inevitably, in due course his strength waned, and some of his sons were able to rise in revolt against him
They killed and ate their father and so made an end to the patriarchal horde.
After their dreadful deed, their remorse and rivalry hindered them from entering into sexual heritage that they had craved.
Details of Totem and taboo
The end result of their deed was the founding of totemism The renegade sons instituted a totem feast, in which they periodically ate the totem In order to make atonement for their patricide.
Details of Totem and taboo
They also instituted the practice of exogamy( 異族結婚 ), whereby they were forbidden to marry within the totem clan, which originally was a prohibition against marrying their sisters.
Details of Totem and taboo
The totem meal, which is perhaps mankind’s earliest festival
a repetition and commemoration of this memorable and criminal deed
was the beginning of social organization, of moral restrictions and of religion
Freud explains the eating of the murdered father by assuming that:
Freud concludes his argument with a reference to the Oedipus complex:
Brothers filled with the contradictory feelingsthey hated their father but they loved and admired him tooremorseA sense of guiltThe dead father become stronger than the living one
What Freud did in Totem and Taboo
Was not just an attempt to explain “savage”religionexplain the origin and meaning of religion
Present a theory explain the origin of the divine-father image and guilt in human history
“Totem and Taboo”
Varieties of atheistic humanism
Freud’s main points of religion
Religion as a cultural phenomenon which can be best understood in term of its origins which was been recognized as Oedipus Complex
In 1907,“an universal obsessional neurosis”
Psychologically nothing but a magnified father
Oedipus and Religion
Oedipus complex Freud believed that the sourced of
religion ,morality, society is Oedipus complex.
• Totem and Taboo• Freud finds the Oedipus Complex also
the origin of religious belief.
The source of religious belief
The totem religion had issued from the sense of guilt of the sons as an attempt to palliate this feeling and to conciliate the injured father through subsequent obedience.( 後來的服從)
All later religions prove to be attempts to solve the same problem, varying only in accordance with the stage of culture in which they are attempted
The origin of religious belief God is at bottom nothing but an exalted father
Psycho-analysis and Religious Origins An unexpectedly precise result: namely that
God the Father once walked upon the earth in bodily form and exercised his sovereignty as chieftain of the primal human horde until his sons united to slay him.
It emerges further that this crime of liberation and the reactions to it had as their result the appearance of the first social ties, the basic moral restrictions and the oldest form of religion, totemism. But the later religions too have the same content
The origin of religious belief
Mose and Monotheism(1937-1939) Hebrew religion Mose was an Egyptian rather than a
Jew Mose was killed by his followers The murder sense guiltcharacter
of Hebrew religion murder of the prophet similarthe
murder of father in totemism.
The origin of religious belief
Mose and Monotheism Return of the repressed Four main stages Totem animal Human hero Gods One god
The origin of religious belief
Thus the grandeur of the primeval father is restored in the Law-giver on Mt.Sinai who requires absolute subjection to his holy will.
sin against replace primordial murder The result is ethical monotheism, which
combines belief in one sole God with the moral asceticism implied in the duty to obey his righteous will.
The origin of religion
Mose and Monotheism Christianity The reconciliation with God the Father,
the expiation of the crime committed against him; but the other side of the relationship manifested itself in the Son, who had taken the guilt on his shoulders, becoming God himself beside the Father religion, Christianity became a Son religion. The fate of having to displace the Father it could not escape
The origin of religious belief
Moses and Monotheism Christianity Christianity doctrines of original sin
and salvation through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
The connection between the delusion and historical truth is further established by the belief that the sacrificial victim was the Son of God.
The origin of religious belief
Example in Totem and Taboo Christianity Eucharist (聖餐) as a revival of the
old totem feast. At bottom, however,it is a new
setting aside of the father, a repetition of the crime that must be expiated.
The evalution on Totemic Theory
“Totem and Taboo”
Criticism1) Authropologists reject Freud’s view on origions of religion Because there is not enough evidences to supported Freud2) Wilhelm Schmidt puts a great challenge to Freud’s Totemic Theory about the origin of religion
CriticismReasons Many cultures have not yet reached totemic stage (pretotemic cultures) These pre-totemic cultures have their own religion Some cultures do not exist to totemic stage→No Totemic Theory can explain for the origin of religion
Criticism
3) A scholar : Frazer Had done a research on totemic tribes Only four have the rituals of killing & eating animals Proved that totemism does not occur in the oldest cultures do nothing on the origin of sacrifice
Criticism
4 )Other scholars General development of religion: Magic → ideas of taboo → belief in spirits →
belief in God
Belief in souls/spirits is not found in all nations
It is not the oldest cultures
Animistic ideas are not the original of religion
Criticism
5 )Feuerbach and Marx Psychological factors affected the ideal of religion Psychological influences draws no conclusion to the existence or nonexistence of God No need to make a further explanation
Criticism
6) The writer : Paul C. Tometic Theory is an not universal explanation on unconscious motivation Need to establish a comprehend theory, to give a wider understanding of aheism Hence, he is working on a new model to replace it now
Merits
Described God as a psychological equivalent to our father Developed a strightforward understanding on the rejection of God & our wish-fulfillment Explain the unconscious motivation of human
Merits
Explain the relationship between children, their fathers and God
If a child loses respect to his father, belief in God becomes impossible
The theory contributes much to a number of psychologists
Merits
A good explanation of lack of religious belief between human
Oedipus’s desire to abolish his father
= do not belief his own religion