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Future Of An Illusion

Decent Essays

Adam Kotula

The Future of an Illusion

Publication Date: 1927

Author: Sigmund Freud

Brief Plot Summary: The Future of an Illusion is a novel where Freud gives his explanation of religion in regards to its development through time as well as its origins. This book is broken up into ten chapters, each looking at a different concept or psychological function of religion and then further branching off in discussion. The first two chapters analyze both the psychological functions and terms of civilization. When Freud looks at the definition of a civilization, he sees it as a body of people that are linked to a specific guideline of rules and are used for controlling the wealth and actions of other among the certain population. He furthers this argument by explaining these two topics mentioned above do not work separately of each other and the primary problem of a civilization is to control social desires. Freud then goes …show more content…

In chapter 8, he focuses on how if religion is removed, there are various types of fear that could be sparked within a civilization. Freud goes on to describe the certain penalties and results that would occur if religion suddenly were to be abandoned. In addition, he mentions how one that is religious also might avoid personal neuroses. These, Freud mentions, can be surmounted using a psychoanalysis method. The last topic Freud talks about is an individual psychoanalysis on what his overall goal is in this book. He talks about his overall experiment and says if this “experiment process is unsatisfactory I am ready to give up the reform and return to my earlier judgment that man is a creature of weak intelligence who is ruled by his instinctual wishes” (62-63). His teaching can be summarized by saying: those who view life without incorporating religious influence will have to endure other types of suffering through their experiences in their

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