The challenge of psychology to religious belief

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The challenge of psychology to religious belief

• Freud
• Jung

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Psychology

• Study of the human mind

nature
development
function
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Psychology of religion examines the relationship
between the human mind and religious belief
Is religion just a product of the human mind?
Is religion wishful thinking?
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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Austrian
• psychologist
• Inventor of
• psychoanalysis

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Religion is an illusion

• It is based on wish fulfilment
• Religion helps us deal with
• Inner psychological conflict
• Stress from the structure of society
• Fear of danger

To describe religion as an illusion does not mean
it is necessarily false
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Religion as an aid to overcome inner
psychological conflict

• Freuds argument runs as follows
• Religion is a form of neurotic illness
• It stems from the unconscious mind
• It is the result of incompletely repressed
  traumatic memories
• The trauma is inevitably sexual in nature
• Therefore religion is an illusion resulting from
  sexual difficulties

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• The Conscious mind contains our present
  thoughts and accessible memories
• The Unconscious mind contains basic drives, such
  as breathing, and forgotten memories

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• The locking away of trauma is unsuccessful as it
  re-emerges later in the form of religion

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Background work with patients suffering from
hysteria

• Freud noticed that unpleasant memories trapped in
  the unconscious mind later emerge in the form of
  hysterical behaviour (often compulsive-obsessional
  disorders)
• Freud made the link between this and the
  behaviour of religious believers e.g. rituals,
  filled with symbolic meaning. Failure to perform
  the ritual results in feelings of guilt

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Trauma was invariably sexual in nature

• At the bottom of every case of hysteria there
  are one or more occurrences of premature sexual
  experience, occurrences which belong to the
  earliest years of childhood (Freud The
  Aetiology of Hysteria 1896)
• For Freud, the libido or sexual drive, was the
  bodys most basic urge and the one capable of
  causing the most psychological problems in a
  persons development

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Oedipus complex

• Conflict between suckling child and father for
  mothers attention
• When the libido is transferred to the sexual
  organs there is already a rival present in the
  form of the father
• Unable to carry out his wishes the child
  represses the conflict deep into the unconscious
  mind

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How does buried trauma translate into religion?

• The natural reaction of the psyche is to control
  feelings of guilt by transferring them away from
  the self and onto surrounding objects and people
• Animism idols or totems are created. The mind
  can then redirect feelings of guilt onto the idol
  by making amends through prayer and sacrifice
• The mind is therefore able to control feelings of
  guilt
• The totem becomes the symbol of identity of the
  group
• Freud noticed an ambivalence it was generally
  forbidden to harm the totem (animal, bird) but
  once a year there would be a ritual killing and
  eating of the totem animal
• In a similar way the prime male (father) grows in
  importance and reputation. Eventually he takes on
  divine significance and becomes the god of
  religion
• Christianity God is generated and treated with
  respect. Every so often he is killed and eaten by
  the group in the ritual of Communion.
• Religion is therefore an illusion created by the
  mind to help us come to terms with the powerfully
  ambivalent emotions suffered during sexual
  development. Religion is a means of coming to
  terms with inner conflict.

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Religion as an illusion to overcome the conflict
between our natures and civilisation

• Society depends upon structure and order
• Religion provides a reason to submit to authority
  suffering is explained in terms of the need to
  obey an omnipotent God
• The concept of an afterlife makes this life
  bearable
• Sublimation occurs the sexual
• instinct is redirected into religious
• art, charity work, music

What would happen if your innate tendencies were
not limited?
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Religion as an illusion to help us overcome our
fear of natural forces

• When faced with natural forces, including death,
  we tend to panic and feel helpless
• Religion helps by creating the belief that we are
  not powerless
• Everything that happens in the world is an
  expression of the intentions of an intelligence
  superior to us, which in the end, though its ways
  and byways are difficult to follow, orders
  everything for the best that is, it makes it
  enjoyable for us
• (Freud Civilisation and its Discontents 1930)

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Reactions to Freud

• Offensive, bizarre, caused uproar
• However, considerable work with patients and as a
  respected psychoanalyst meant that ideas were
  taken seriously

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Support?

• Use of Darwin and work on primitive societies to
  examine the social unit as a primal horde with a
  dominant male holding claim over females
• Dominant male becomes idolised as feelings are
  ambivalent - he then becomes the totem of the
  group
• Shows that the Oedipus complex is not just a
  personal trauma but a social one
• Explains why religion is a universal phenomenon

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Evaluating Freuds conclusions relating to
religion

• Does Freud prove that there is no God?
• Does religion provide a service for society?
• Should (can) religion be replaced with something
  else?

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Freud provides some interesting insights into
religious belief, but he has been criticised

• On the basis of historical/anthropological
  evidence
• Oedipus complex
• Narrow selection of evidence
• Has a negative view of religion

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Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)