Freud And Jung Flashcards
Religion as neurosis
Freud argued that religion is a universal obsessional neurosis, sometimes called a collective neurosis
By neurosis he means a mental disorder that often results in obsessive behaviour.
He had noticed that both obsessional neurotics and religious believers spend a lot of time carrying out certain rituals and are worried if they aren’t done correctly
The basis of neurosis
Freud believes that the human mind has a conscious and unconscious part. The conscious mind suppresses certain instincts including sexual desire because these are not socially acceptable, but they remain in the unconscious mind and can cause conflict.
The Oedipus complex
Small children have an emotional attachment to the parent of the opposite sex and sees the parent of the same sex as a rival, while at the same time admiring them
For example, a boy admires his father but at the same time wants to take his place in his mother’ affections. If he gets to share his mother’s bed when his father is away, he resents his father’s return.
This hatred of the father and desire for the mother is clearly socially unacceptable and so it is repressed. Neurotic behaviour is the result of the repressed material ‘projecting’ back into the conscious mind in a form the person can cope with
Primal Horde theory
We originally organised ourselves in social groups or ‘hordes’ with a dominant male who slept with all the women and sent all the young men away
The rejected sons, Freud suggests, one day get together to kill the father-figure in order to gain access to the women
Overcome with guilt, and with no single male in a position to take over from the father, the men put a totem (usually an animal symbol) in his place and make two rules
1. Nobody may kill the totem
2. Nobody can commit incest
However, once each year there is a ritual ‘totem meal’ in which the group eats the totem animal which represents the original sin of killing the father. The two rules reject the original desires of the men but the meal recognises these and this tension forms the beginning of religion.
Sublimation
Most art and culture are a result of repressed sexual desires being expressed in a more socially acceptable way
3 wishes fulfilled by religion
The desire for protection from a hostile external world whose forces are beyond our control
The need to overcome our internal instincts in order to live in a civilised society
The longing for a father figure
Positive view of religion - Jung
He thought religion was essential for individuation– the name Jung gives to becoming psychologically mature and together.
The collective unconscious
Jung argued that we have universal concepts ‘archetypes’ in our collective unconscious, and believed that we were all born with the patterns of thinking to produce them
The archetypes
Blueprints for how to act
The persona
The shadow
The anima and animus
The wise old man
The self
God
The persona
We present an image of ourselves to the world and conceal what we really are
This can cause neurosis as our real character is suppressed and the artificial personality takes over. The public image becomes more ‘real’ than the actual person
The shadow
The dark side of our personality that we do not want to show to others or even admit to ourselves
Because we cannot face this dark aspect of ourselves, the shadow is often projected out onto ‘evil’ figures such as the devil or our mother-in-law! These are powerful figures because they reflect our capacity for evil
When we meet someone we don’t like, they represent the qualities we don’t like about ourselves.
The anima and animus
The animus is the unconscious masculine side of a woman, and the anima is the unconscious feminine side of a man.
Initially we experience these through our parents, but Jung argues that we will find people attractive if they have the same qualities as our own Anima/Animus image
The wise old man
Seen in many myths and legends, such as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, Merlin in the story of King Arthur, Dumbledore in Harry Potter
The fact that these figures are found in so many stories gives Jung evidence that the archetypes are universal
The self
Blueprint of wholeness, the human who is totally psychically integrated and therefore healthy
Jesus is seen by Jung as a perfect symbol of the archetype of the Self because he is seen as a perfect, whole, integrated human
Religion is an important means towards individuation through the actualisation (making something real) of the archetypes, which makes religion essential for mental health according to Jung
God as the archetype of the collective unconscious
Formed the core of all religious symbols and imagery and was universal to all humans
Like the other archetypes, the God archetype cannot be known directly and can only be known through the symbols it projects into the conscious mind.
Religion as a source of comfort
Jung valued religion because it allows people to feel more whole and to integrate different aspects of their personalities
Jung based this on observing the positive effects of religious beliefs on humans
Without our archetypes being balanced (individuation), mental health would be affected
