Freud

• Sigmund Freud


  Believed religion to be a human invention formed by our own subconscious minds which damages our wellbeing. It is a form of neurosis, mental illness
• Sigmund Freud


  • Born in 1856
  • Parents were of Jewish descent
  • Had a close relationship with his mother
  • Was distant with his father
• Freud's father


  Took Judaism seriously
• Freud's mother


  Came from a line of scholars and rabbis
• The household largely ignored Jewish festivals
• Freud had a Catholic nanny who took him to church and taught him Christian beliefs
• Freud never held any kind of personal belief in God
• Freud's idea


  Experiences early in childhood can have a profound effect on people throughout their lives
• Freud's private practice


  • Opened in Vienna
  • Specialised in 'nervous disorders'
  • Gave him opportunities to experiment with his theories
• Freud's understanding of the psyche (mind)


  Not just a single, straightforward thing but has layers
• Repressed painful memories


  • Buried/repressed in people's mind as a way of coping with trauma
  • Emerge later in life and cause distress
• Freud's therapy


  • Initially used hypnosis but switched to free-talking therapy
  • Important to uncover repressed painful memories and work through them, so that people can recover
• Many ridiculed Freud's ideas because he was Jewish
• • Antisemitism was on the rise
  • His books were burnt and his daughter was arrested by the Gestapo
  • Freud had to leave the country
• The Ego


  • Part of the mind closest to surface
  • Conscious self
  • We are aware of our likes/dislikes/opinions/moods
• The Id


  • Part of personalities that is not immediately obvious to us
  • Unconscious self
  • Memories/feelings we repress and do not admit to ourselves
  • Are brought to the surface when someone is under hypnosis
• The Super-ego


  • Similar to the conscience
  • Our driving moral force
  • The behaviour we develop from parents/siblings/peers about what is acceptable/unacceptable in society
  • We internalise these rules and they shape our personality/values
• There is nothing in reality corresponding to what people think of as God
• Religion


  A human construct
• Freud's understanding of religion

  Influenced by German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach who he studied at university
• Ludwig Feuerbach's argument


  • Belief in God comes from the human mind, not from any external, supernatural being
  • Religion merely displays qualities that we wish we had
  • Lives having a purpose
  • Power over natural processes
  • Immortality
  • These ideas were so powerful within the human mind that people project them into universe, imagining a being that fulfils all of humanity's wishes
• Freud's view on religion


  The whole of religion is an illusion in the sense that it is a wish based on no evidence
• Freud stated that illusions aren't necessarily false but are based on wishes rather than any kind of hard-evidence
• Religion


  • A collective neurosis
  • Has obsessive rituals that are performed by large groups
  • Shows close similarities to obsessional neurosis (OCD)
• Religious rituals and OCD

  • Repetitive behavioural patterns tied with fear and guilt
  • People feel compelled to perform certain actions repeatedly
  • People with OCD feel as if something bad would happen to them or someone they love if they didn't repeat actions
• Repressed desires


  • Sexual urges or other desires which society requires people to keep under control
  • When emotions are repressed, they build up and show through other ways if obvious routes are blocked
  • Repressing these desires leave people unfulfilled and leads us to anxiety-driven obsessional rituals
• We would be better without religion since it is a mental illness
• The Oedipus Complex


  • Every child goes through a phase of having sexual feelings towards a parent of the opposite sex
  • The son sees the father as competition for his mother's love
• Freud's conclusion


  • Neurosis has its roots in sexuality
  • Sexual impulses in infancy have great importance
• Primal Horde


  • During early stages of human development, we lived together in a simple society for hunting and safety
  • It was ruled by a single-dominant male who had control over the females in the group
  • Other males would respect his authority but envy him and his power
  • They would eventually kill the father/male head and take control over the horde
  • They would feel guilt from this action and create a totem animal that represented the father, worshipping it as a way of getting rid of guilt
• Eucharist


  • Evidence of primitive practices embedded in religious thought
  • Sacrifice of Christ
  • Sharing of bread + wine as body + blood of Christ
  • Takes away sin and guilt
  • Similar to totemic meal shared of ancestors
• Freud stated that religion is an infantile illusion and that the adult does not need religion and can cope with injustices of life independently with no childish dependance on an imaginary father
• Freud's view on religion


  • Religion exists because of our need to live with illusion rather than face life's realities
  • People feel helpless and wish that they can be in control of their lives, so they invent a system where everything makes sense and they are looked after, with justice being done
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's theory


  • Believed in inheritance of acquired characteristics
  • Animals gain or lose characteristics according to their usefulness, which are then inherited by offspring
• Lamarck's theories are generally discarded in favour of Darwinism, but there are those who believe this in some respects
• Recent developments in psychology and psychotherapy support that anxiety and other disorders can relate to unconscious childhood trauma
• Sigmund Freud created the 'talking cure'
• Challenges against Freud

  • Emphasis on sexual urges
  • Lack of Anthropological evidence
  • Lack of Psychological evidence
  • Narrow evidence
  • Not available to empirical testing
• Bronislaw Malinowski's findings


  • Studied islanders of New Guinea and found that their society was matrilineal, with sons being detached from mothers at young age and fathers not being authoritative figures
  • No repressed desires for young men to overthrow fathers, so no primal crime and no inherited guilt
  • Oedipus complex is NOT universal, it is not innate or inherited but instead arises from certain cultural practices
• Freud grouped many mental health conditions as being caused by the Oedipus complex, but there is little evidence of this