Freud’s view
For Sigmund Freud, the body’s most basic drive is sex or libido.
- Babies:
- Libido centred around mouth and desire to suckle mother’s breast
- Child - Adult:
- Libido centres on reproductive organs and the desire to reproduce
- Our first memory is our conception and being breastfed, but this is repressed.
- This leads to hostile feelings towards the same-sex parent
Jung’s view
- Central to Carl Jung’s ideas is the concept of libido - the basic drive in all of us to be fulfilled in life. It is a “great river of energy” that is not exclusively sexual in origin.
- Religion plays an important part in becoming a healthy individual - the development of an individual’s potential.
- Religion is a natural process stemming from the archetypes in the unconscious mind. Removing it could be detrimental as it harmonises the psyche.