2D: Religious belief as a product of the human mind: Freud Flashcards
1
Q
Who was Sigmund Freud?
A
- Austrian psychologist who is seen as one of the founding fathers of Psychology.
2
Q
Background - Freud believes religion is reductive:
A
- reductive: religious belief is just a product/function of the human mind. It causes people to perform meaningless religious rituals, which have no basis in reality.
- non-reductive: religious belief is a result of genuine revelation, religious experience and/or enlightenment.
3
Q
Background - religion comes from the ‘unconscious mind’:
A
-
4
Q
Freud’s theories on religion is an ‘illusion’:
A
- The Oedipus Complex
- The Primal Hordes
5
Q
What is the Oedipus Complex?
A
- Freud believed that one of the repressed feelings in the unconscious mind was the male child’s unconscious desire to kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother.
- This feeling stems from the idea that all males have a ‘libido’ (a lustful powerful desire). As a new born child this ‘libido’ is in the mouth (e.g. a child has a powerful desire for food). The mother satisfies this desire by breast feeding their child.
- At the age of about 2 or 3 the libido (powerful desire) transfers to the child’s sexual organs. However, the child still wants the mother to satisfy their libido. However, in the child’s mind the mother will not do this because she is instead their father’s libido.
- As a result of this the child builds up ambivalent (conflicting) feelings towards their father:
- on one hand they respect him because he is the head of the family
- on the other hand, they are full anger and hate their fathers for the reasons explained above.
- It is these feelings that get repressed into our unconscious minds because the child cannot cope with these strong and hateful feelings.
- Freud then argues that belief in God arises when we get ‘projections’ (flash-backs) of the ‘Oedipus Complex’ from our unconscious mind, in later life. However, instead of realising what these feelings really are, we confuse them with ‘a God type figure’ i.e. the strong ambivalent feelings we had about our father, get projected on to a God type figure.
6
Q
How does Freud see God?
A
1) A male-figure (because we are confusing it with our fathers)
2) God is seen as powerful and strong (we are confusing it with the fact our fathers are strong and powerful heads of the family)
3) God is to be feared (because we hated our father due to the Oedipus Complex)
- Therefore, according to Freud belief in God is an illusion because they are no more than projections from repressed childhood memories and feeling – the Oedipus Complex.
- According to Freud an illustration that a person has successfully dealt with these repressed memories, and feelings, is that they no longer believe in (the illusion of) God.
7
Q
What is the Primal Hordes?
A
- Freud claimed there was a historical reason for beliefs in God; but they too are just an illusion.
- In his book ‘Totem and Taboo’ Freud argued that primitive humans had lived in ‘hordes’ (small groups or tribes)
- Each horde was dominated by a powerful male (an alpha male), who had sexual relations with all the women in the group and fought off any men who attempted to take what ‘belonged’ to him.
- According to Freud, the rest of the men of the horde (driven by desire, hate and jealousy) kill the powerful alpha male. However, they then became overwhelmed with guilt at killing the alpha male, and thus put a totem or symbol in the place of the alpha-make. They also made 2 rules: ‘That no one should kill the totem’ and ‘No one can commit incest’
- This process of transferring extreme guilt onto a totem is called ‘Animism’.
- Eventually, totems became unsatisfactory and they evolved into gods, from which religions developed - such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism etc.
- Therefore, for Freud, this is the origin of the illusion of god(s) and religion(s) i.e. like the totem, they express our psychological need for a symbolic father figure/alpha male in our lives.
8
Q
Freud - relgion as a ‘neurosis’:
A
- As well as Freud believing that religion was an illusion, he also believed religion was a ‘universal obsessional neurosis’. As he stated: “Religion is a neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity.”
- A neurosis is defined as a ‘mental disorder often associated with anxiety, fear or obsessive behaviour.’
- Freud suggested there are two reasons why religion is a neurosis:
9
Q
What are the two reasons why religion is a ‘neurosis’?
A
- Wish-Fulfilment and Reaction Against Helplessness
- Obsessive Behaviour/Fear and Anxiety
10
Q
Wish fulfilment and reaction against helplessness:
A
- In many religious traditions there are stories of individual mystical experiences where the mystical experience was so overwhelming that the person feels they are at one with God and/or the Universe. The term for such mystical experiences is ‘Oceanic Feelings’
- Freud argued that religious mystical experiences (‘oceanic feelings’) were in fact proof that religion is just a neurosis.
- Freud called the Oceanic Feelings, ‘wish fulfilments’. This is because he argued that humans cannot psychologically cope with life – we find it isolating and threatening. The most threatening part of life is the fear of death - we are far too insecure to face death. Therefore, we unconsciously react against this helplessness and wish for a time when we did not feel this fear – this is what Freud calls ‘wish fulfilment’.
- As infants we did not have this fear because we had no need to be individuals with an ‘ego’ i.e. we relied on our mothers for everything we needed.
- Freud, therefore, argued that mystical religious experiences (the ‘oceanic feelings’) found in religions is nothing more than the desire (wish-fulfilment) found in every human being to return to the womb (in utero) to a sense of ‘oneness’ or ‘connectedness’.
- Freud believed that such oceanic feelings were the opposite of psychological maturity – they are a regressive neurosis. Freud thought that rather than ‘regressing’ (taking a backward step) by having these ‘oceanic feelings’ we should face reality as a mature adult. As Freud states: “Men cannot remain children for ever; they must in the end go out into hostile life.”
- Therefore, for Freud, it was ironic that ‘oceanic feelings’ are seen as the highest form of spiritual religious experience, when in fact it is a lower/childlike regressive neurosis.
11
Q
Obsessive behaviour/fear and anxiety:
A
- Freud believed it was appropriate to describe religion as a ‘universal obsessional neurosis’ because religious activities bear a striking resemblance to the activities of a neurotic person - ‘Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’.
- People with obsessive conditions (OCD) tend to repeat actions which, to the observer, are meaningless e.g. excessive hand washing, cleaning rituals, doing actions in a particular order etc. The reason why this form of neurotic behaviour is seen as unhealthy is that this behaviour does not have a logical basis.
- Freud believed that religious rituals are just another example of neurotic behaviour i.e. religious rituals are just an illustration of OCD. For example, in Islam Muslims have to pray 5 times a day (called ‘Salat’) and wash in a certain way and in a certain order before prayer (called ‘Wudu’).
- Therefore, Freud would believe Muslims are just showing a neurosis in the form of obsessive compulsive disorder. And like any other form of obsessive compulsive disorder, the religious OCD has no basis in reality. Therefore, religion is no more than a form of neurosis
- Freud supported the above argument by stating that a neurotic person will feel anxiety and fear if they are prevented from performing their neurotic OCD activity.
- The same, Freud argues, occurs when the religious person is prevented from performing their ‘religious’ rituals e.g. praying 5 times a day. The religious person is beset by guilt, fear and anxiety because they feel that ‘God’ would not approve if they do not do their religious rituals.
- Freud argued that psychological health (or ‘maturity’) would come about when people stopped indulging in this neurotic behaviour and faced up to reality. Freud believed the aim of life is to become adjusted to the scientific world view and leave all neurotic religious beliefs behind.
12
Q
Examples of supportive evidence for Freud’s theory on Religion:
A
- redirection of guilt
- instinctive desires
- support - Ludwig Feuerbach and John Schumaker
- evidence
13
Q
Redirection of guilt:
A
- Freud’s theory on the redirection of guilt (as found in his ‘Primal Hordes theory’) was based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.
- It was Darwin who had first speculated that our ancestors used to live in hordes, led by an alpha-male.
- From this theory, Freud developed his Primal Horde theory
14
Q
Instinctive ideas:
A
- Other parts of Freud’s theory are also supported by the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin.
- Darwin had argued that instincts had developed in humankind because they aided the survival of our ancestors - these survival traits were passed on to future generations.
- Freud used this concept of ‘innate drives’ in various elements of his theories.
- For example, all males have an innate powerful drive, which Freud, called the ‘libido’.
15
Q
Support - Ludwig Feuerbach:
A
- Ludwig Feuerbach in his book: ‘The Essence of Christianity’ agrees with Freud’s assertion that religion is a childlike condition.
- He felt that it is an illusion which comes from feelings of separation from oneself and the world. These feelings of separation lead to the qualities, which we ourselves lack, being projected on to a ‘god’ i.e. we wish to be loved, so we project the omnibenevolence on to a ‘god’ like figure.
