Freud and Jung

• Sigmund Freud (1858-1939)


  Famous Austrian psychologist, one of the founding fathers of Psychology
• Carl Jung (1875-1961)


  Famous psychologist
• Reductive


  Religion is a product / function of the human mind. It causes people to perform meaningless religious rituals, which have no basis in reality (they are pointless)
• Non-Reductive


  Religious belief is the result of revelation, religious experience or enlightenment. It is real, not just a product of the mind
• Freud supported the reductive view of why humans are religious
• Unconscious mind


  Something every human being has, containing repressed feelings, ideas and memories, as well as powerful desires that are hidden but always there
• Freud found the source of the 'unconscious mind' is some form of childhood sexual experience or desire
• Freud believed that one of the signs of a person who had not come to terms with the unconscious material in their mind was that they were religious
• Religion is an Illusion


  Freud's theory that religion is an illusion that comes from the human mind
• Oedipus Complex


  Freud's theory that the male child has an unconscious desire to kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother, which gets repressed into the unconscious mind
• Belief in God arises when we get 'flash-back' memories of the Oedipus Complex from our unconscious mind in later life
• Primal Hordes


  Freud's theory that primitive humans lived in small groups or tribes dominated by a powerful male, and the rest of the men killed the alpha male out of desire, hate and jealousy, then felt guilty and created a totem or symbol to represent the alpha male, which later evolved into gods of religions
• Wish-Fulfilment


  Freud's theory that the religious mystical experience ('oceanic feeling') is the desire (wish-fulfilment) found in every human being to return to the womb (in utero) to a sense of 'oneness' or 'connectedness'
• Religion is a Neurosis


  Freud's theory that religion is a 'universal obsessional neurosis' because religious activities bear a striking resemblance to the activities of a neurotic person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Obsessive Behaviour


  Freud believed religious rituals are just another form of OCD, with no basis in reality
• Fear and Anxiety


  Freud argued a religious person will feel anxiety and fear if they are prevented from performing the required religious rituals
• Freud's theory on redirection of guilt is supported by Charles Darwin's ideas about our ancestors living in hordes led by an alpha-male
• Freud's theory of innate drives is supported by Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory
• Freud's theories are supported by other psychologists like David Hume and Ludwig Feuerbach
• Contemporary evidence from a 1983 study by Carroll supports Freud's link between belief in God and a projected father figure
• Freud's theory of the primal horde lacks anthropological evidence, as there was more variety in primitive societies than Freud suggests
• Bronislaw Malinowski discredited Freud's Oedipus complex, arguing it is not a universal phenomenon
• as where fathers tend to be absent. These visions are also far more common among the celibate or unmarried. Therefore, supporting Freud's link that belief in God and religion is linked to a projected father figure.
• Freud's Theory on Religion – Challenges

  • Lack of Anthropological Evidence
  • No universal Oedipus Complex
  • Evidence base is too narrow
  • Freud is inconsistent
  • Some religious beliefs are not comforting
• Primal horde


  Freud's theory based on ideas of Charles Darwin
• It is now generally accepted that there was more variety in primitive societies than Freud suggests. For example, not all tribes had totems or even a dominate alpha-male.
• Freud's idea that guilt was handed down from generation to generation is incorrect.
• Freud is wrong to suggest that belief in a God and religion is based on this guilt.
• Oedipus Complex


  Bronislaw Malinowski attempted to discredit Freud's Oedipus complex
• The 'family unit' is not the same in every society and so the Oedipus Complex cannot be universal phenomena as Freud claimed.
• If the Oedipus Complex is not universal phenomena then it cannot be the cause of all religions.
• Family units in the Trobriand Islands


  • The family is dominated by the mother (matrilineal) and the Father has nothing to do with the upbringing of the children
• Therefore, there cannot be an Oedipus Complex in the Trobriand Islands and therefore religions they follow must require a different explanation.
• Freud's theories


  • Based on a limited and skewed sample of sick people
  • Freud only had five case studies to support his work
  • Lacks scientific rigour
• Freud's Oedipus complex concludes why god is seen as male, such as Christian God. However, it does not explain/ignores why some religions have important female gods, such as Hinduism or the Egyptian Isis cult and religions which do not have a God at all, such as Buddhism.
• Freud's explanation of religious belief as an expression of the longing for a father figure doesn't explain all religious belief.
• Freud's explanation goes nowhere in accounting for the completely impersonal concept of Nirvana.
• Many ideas within Christianity are both unsettling and challenging. Following Jesus can be very uncomforting because we have to accept the belief that you and I are dirty, rotten sinners who need to take up our crosses, denying our own egos by allowing Jesus to be the helm of our daily lives.
• Collective Unconscious


  A reservoir of experiences of our species. Jung believed all humanity is born with certain unconscious innate instincts in our minds.
• Archetypes


  Universal innate information in our collective unconscious. Imprints that form the basic themes of human life.