Views on Religion
Freud had a very negative view towards belief in God and religion. He believed:
- Religion is an aid to overcoming inner psychological conflict
- Religion helps us to overcome the conflict between our desires and society
- Religion is an illusion to overcome our fear of nature
Many of his patients demonstrated obsessional neuroses; for example, they would ritually wash themselves but still feel unclean. It was the result of unfulfilled sexual desires.
Oedipus Complex and Religion
- Repression isn’t enough. The mind struggles to keep these feelings in the unconscious and, as a result, ends up channelling out these feelings as neurotic behaviour.
- For Freud, religion is the “universal obsessional neurosis of mankind” thus religion is simply a response to the Ego’s struggle with repressed memories.
- He speculated that in early societies each group, would hold one male as the leader.
- The second reason for our supposed creation of religion is to help us get over the fact that we can’t do everything we’d like to do because of the laws of the land.
- Religion doubles up as another of the Ego’s self-defence mechanisms.
- The libido’s focus in channelled into other activities, like distraction.
- Religion gives us a reason to submit to society, it gives us the promise of a better life after as a reward for our good behaviour in this society.
Criticisms
Causes of mental illness It is known that there are many potential causes of obsessional neuroses rather than just repressed experiences of sexual trauma.
The Oedipus Complex Psychologists are in dispute over whether the Oedipus complex is universal or if it exists at all.
There are a lot of cases where a mother is raising a son without a father figure, yet very few cases of sons doing things they shouldn’t be with their mums. What about gay children? Are they after their mum too?
God as the father figure Not all religions describe God as a father, or male.
Small research sample The bigger the test size, the more accurate the results. Since Freud tested on a relatively small number of people, his findings might not be totally trustworthy.