PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH: SACRAMENT OF PENANCE IN PERSPECTIVE

In his book Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud utilizes his method of psychoanalysis on religion by comparing the relationship between human and religion to that of a child and his parents. Freud effectively demonstrates that religion is a product of the human mind. After exposing religion as a an illusion, Freud concludes that humanity will be better off when it has forgone religion. This paper will argue that Freud's assertion that religion is an illusion is correct because of it's blatantly traceable evolution through the history of the human civilization and psyche.

Sigmund Freud today is honored as the founder of modern psychoanalysis. His concept of the human psyche has been used to analyze everything from individual psychologies to the structure of Hamlet. But although Freud is often parodied, cited, and imitated in popular literature, his theories have fallen out of favor in the academic discipline of psychology he was so influential in founding. Courses in psychology devote a paucity of attention to Freud, and literary and cultural studies courses are more often apt to include a primer on the ego, id, and superego, versus psychology classes that attempt to train practitioners in the field. Historian Paul Robinson writes that the applicability of Freud to literary analysis is a symptom of his lack of scientific rigor: "In one respect, Freud might seem to be alive and well in the contemporary intellectual world. I am thinking of the prestige that psychoanalysis still enjoys in literary studies... [critic] Frederick Crews wrote: 'No sadder proof exists of the rift between literature and science than this new adherence to a Freudianism that is rapidly losing authority outside the circle of literary theory'" (Robinson, Introduction, 1993:1). This paper will attempt to explore why this is the case: why has Freud fallen out of favor in the field he founded. Why are the primary strengths of psychoanalytic theory viewed as lying within the field of literary theory

Slater gathers strength from Freud’s thought while concluding her article that, “Freud once defined repression quite benignly as a refocusing of attention away from unpleasant ideas”.

Furthermore, we can explore how different societies influence religion and utilize it to propagate their agendas while justifying their actions to still fit the core tenants of their religion.

Religion wasn’t entirely as scholarly subject as psychology was because religious views were hard to explain scientifically whereas psychology could be explain through explanation and reasoning that could be backed with data. It is hard to explain how things work when your sources come from one book. Early psychology didn’t view religion as a real thing. It was something humans created as a means of coping or just simple came forth from a group of repeated patterns that evolve and becomes what it is today. So psychology and religion didn’t really work together, really psychology was used to explain religion rather than both fields respecting each

A religious experience, which could also be interpreted as a mystical experience due to the lack of objective understanding, could be a type of subjective experience that is strengthened through blind faith. On one side, religious experience may exist in order to defend one’s self against the ‘corrupting’ influence of rationalism and on the other side, religious experience could be an inert feeling that carries the moral of every person. One may say that rationalism protects one’s self against psychosis as well as sinning while the other might say that it is only religious experience that can protect one from delusion and sin. William James and Sigmund Freud offer competing views on the specifics of religious experience and the capabilities of as well as limits of the human knowledge in attempting to understand the ‘religious.’ In terms of whether the religious experience is exclusive or rare or not, James believed that men have a religious appetite, and when this religious appetite is insufficient to allow a person to be faithful, then men seek satisfaction through philosophy and logic though when exclusively sought out for then the man becomes eccentric and exceptional (James 2-5). James claims that scientific judgment alone cannot completely embrace religion and nor can spiritual judgment (James 5). He says that it is with the combination of the two that a clearer

A factor of this paper came from a definition of religion. By Clifford Geertz "... is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and

The sole purpose of this paper is to investigate and uncover the reasons as to why Sigmund Freud refused to believe in religion. Sigmund Freud was an unbelievable psychologist and philosopher. He was known for discovering many great ideas such us psychoanalysis and for truly understanding human development as well as atypical development. Freud was also known for his strong rejection of religion. Freud believed religion was an illusion and thought that those who followed religion were weak and part of the ignorant society. Freud lost his faith in religion growing up. He had many difficulties in his childhood. Freud didn’t have a great relationship with his parents and surely enough lost all his loved ones at a very young age. Freud struggled with the idea of protection. He lost faith in God because he was taught that God was supposed to protect and save you from hardship but unfortunately for Freud, he didn’t experience that. Thus, this paper will unveil the reasons for Freud’s rejection of religion.

Sigmund Freud’s theory religion started within the individual and later spread to the society. Freud at one point was considered to be one of the fathers of

Freud had two key ideas about religion: firstly, that it was a collective neurosis – a universal mental illness that manifests itself in the form of obsessive rituals and was caused by sexual repression and guilt – and secondly, that it was all part of a phenomenon that he called ‘wish fulfilment’, whereby believers would perceive God to possess all good qualities of mankind and yet none of the bad.

Freud claims religion is only imagined because there is a need for regulation and control, making religion divisive. Freud believes religion is a source of power making. However, according to Freud religion has reached its endpoint and should make way for truth, science. Freud claims that there are already people who question what the purpose of religion is; if it is based on distortions of truth. Freud argues that religion is bogging down human intelligence. In his work, Freud concluded that there was one way that humanity could advance and that was that humans had to abandon their ideas of a higher power completely and come to the truth the actual truth which is science.

Although Jewish by heritage, Freud felt that religion was an escape for most people. Like Karl Marx, he felt that religion was the ‘opiate’ of the masses and that it should not be propagated. That said ,Freud grappled with the problem of mythology and religious institutions for most of his life. He collected many antiquities, most of which were religious, and a Leonardo cartoon, ‘Madonna and Child with St Anne’ hung in his house. Some scholars have suggested that Freud saw religion as the disguised psychological truths he felt lie at the heart of human mental distress.

Throughout the book, when explaining the true meanings behind Freud’s work, Bettelheim (1983) constantly spoke down on the English translations, understandings, and attitudes about Freud’s work. While most everything Bettelheim (1983) said about the lost translations could be true, he presents his point in such a way that makes it impossible for anyone who is not familiar with Freud’s culture to agree with him, especially Americans. Specifically, I thought he was wrong to assume that Americans primarily used the word “soul” to refer to religion (Bettelheim, 1983; pg. 76). In addition, he Bettelheim (1983) also predicted that Freud would say that America “lacked soul” (pg. 81). Accusations like this were commonplace throughout the text, even though they seemed

Freud in his writing suggests that religion is an “illusion.” Not your typical deception of something, rather misapprehension of religion. Additionally, Freud provides brand new eyes to look at religion and its construct of civilization. He further provides evidence of his own, as well as suggesting a psychoanalytical approach to religion.

For starters, it is important to define the term “religion” as many different definitions circulate. Chidester (2005) offers a simple definition, which states that “religion provides ways of being a human in a place” (p.3). Since religion is known to be a complex concept, Chidester’s definition is functional because he does not put restrictions on what religion is. Instead, the importance is placed on the element of human experience that will not only bring individuals together, but