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Religious Studies: Philosophy > 2E: Freud > Flashcards

2E: Freud Flashcards

1
Q

Ego

A
  • part of the psyche that is residing largely in the conscious
  • mediates between desires of the id and the superego
  • the personality you show the rest of the world
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2
Q

Id

A
  • part of the psyche that is residing in the unconscious
  • relates to basic needs and desires
  • primitive and impulsive part of the psyche
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3
Q

Superego

A
  • part of the unconscious mind
  • moral part of personality which includes the conscience and the ideal ego
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4
Q

What did Freud believe the psyche was made up of?

A

conscious, preconscious, unconscious

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5
Q

According to Freud, how was religion similar to an obsessional neurosis?

A
  • Both exhibit similar patterns of uneasiness if they neglect repeated actions
  • Both are meticulous about the detail of the way the action must be carried out
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6
Q

According to Freud, how was religion different to an obsessional neurosis?

A

Religious people understood the meaning of their practices

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7
Q

What is a collective neurosis?

A

Neurotic compulsions and religious rituals that are found universally

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8
Q

Why does Freud call religion a collective neurosis?

A

The neurotic compulsions and religious rituals are found universally

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9
Q

What is a collective neurosis?

A

A neurotic illness that afflicts all people

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10
Q

What is an instinctual impulse?

A

an instinct that is in the unconscious but active in the psyche

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11
Q

Which Freud text describes the primal horde?

A

‘Totem and Taboo’

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12
Q

What is a totem?

A

Something (eg an animal or plant) that is the symbol for a tribe or family

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13
Q

What did Freud suggest must have happened in a primal horde to explain totemism?

A

Conflicts where sons expelled from the group returned to kill the dominant father

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14
Q

How is totemism similar to Christianity?

A
  • Holy Communion = totemic ritual of killing animal
  • Both involve symbolic meals tied to a sense of guilt
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15
Q

What is the primal horde theory?

A
  • human beings originally lived in small groups
  • over many generations the horde had been dominated by dingle dominant males
  • the males seized the women for themselves and killed all rivals (including their sons)
  • at some point, a band of prehistoric brothers expelled from the alpha male group returned to kill their father
  • they both feared and respected the father
  • this enabled them to become dominant over the horde and gain women themselves
  • but after the event, the young males felt guilty because they loved and feared the father
  • with their fathers death, they became rivals against each other for possession of the women
  • the brothers formed a tribe due to their guilt and collapse of social order
  • a totem took place of the father, uniting the tribe
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16
Q

What did Freud discover through his examination of totemism among the Australian Aborigines?

A
  • every clan had a totem
  • people were not allowed to marry those with the same totem as themselves, which was a way to prevent incest
  • the concept of the totem influenced the tribes to certain norms of behaviour, to go against them would be taboo
  • “The totem members were forbidden to eat the flesh of the totem animal, or were allowed to do so only under specific conditions”
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17
Q

How did Freud connect totemism and Darwin’s primitive horde theory?

A
  • His psychoanalysis of the totem ceremony revealed the totem animal was a substitute for the father who was both loved and feared
  • Over time the reputation of the slaughtered father grew to divine proportions
  • The totem became worshipped and became the God
  • A yearly commemoration by a ritual killing and eating of the totem animal (eating and drinking as a symbol of fellowship)
  • Freud says this explains the inherited sense of guilt we all have; it results from a memory of having killed the father
  • This explains Holy Communion as Christ now replaced the father as the centre of religious devotion through his offering of atonement
18
Q

What is the Oedipus Complex named after?

A

‘Oedipus Rex’ by Sophocles (a Greek tragedy)

19
Q

What happens in Oedipus Rex?

A

Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and marries his own mother. When he realises this he gouges out his own eyes in guilt and despair

20
Q

Why does Freud believe is the reason behind Oedipus Rex still being popular?

A
  • It reflects an unconscious anxiety that most adults have experienced
  • A similar guilt operated unconsciously in our psyche and is caused by our sexual drive
21
Q

What does psychosexual development occur according to Freud and what does this cause?

A

Between ages 3-6
- Causes a development of sexual identity, changing the dynamic between the child and their parent (reflect Oedipus in terms of a sort of love affair with our mother)

22
Q

How does Oedipus reflect our psychosexual development?

A
  • We see our father as a rival but we fear him
  • This conflict is the cause of our unconscious anxiety
23
Q

What does Freud say is the danger of repressing a castration complex?

A

The resulting Oedipus complex will lead to neurotic behaviour and religion is merely an expression of this neurotic behaviour

24
Q

What text does Freud discuss wish fulfilment?

A

‘The Future of an Illusion’

25
Q

What is wish fulfilment?

A
  • Based on Ludwig Feuerbach; saw God as a ‘projection’ of the human mind based on human longings and desires
  • The origin of religion lies in our deepest wishes (eg the desire to escape death)
  • Each attribute of God can be interpreted to be an expression of an aspect of the hope human beings have to be free from limitations (eg God’s holiness = our desire to escape sin)
  • The individuals who invented religious doctrines did so because the doctrines fulfilled their wishes: the people who embrace religious views do so out of wish fulfilment
26
Q

How does Freud say illusion is a reaction against helplessness?

A
  • We are confronted by natural forces against which we feel defenceless and so need to invent a source of security
  • Religion created this security with the belief that the natural forces are no longer impersonal
  • Eg forces of nature might be turned into gods or goddesses who can be worshipped and controlled
  • Religious teaching seeks to limit war and violence, introducing ideas of protecting the weak and loving one’s enemies
  • Sexual drive can be controlled through strict religious laws governing sexual behaviour and relationships: those who obey will be rewarded
  • Like the father protects the child, religious belief provided a father figure to protect the adult
  • Freud viewed religion as a childish delusion whilst atheism was a grown up realism
27
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of religion as an illusion

A
  • Parable of Prodigal Son
  • 40 Days temptation
  • “God is our refuge”
28
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of religion as a collective neurosis

A
  • Christus Victor
  • Day of Atonement
29
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of the primal horde in religion

A
  • “We love because he loved us first”: divine initiative
  • Scapegoat
  • Divine father figure as a comforting substitute
30
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of Oedipus complex

A
  • Jesus tells us to call God “father” when saying the Lord’s prayer
  • devotion to the Virgin Mary
31
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of religion was wish fulfilment

A
  • Revelations in Bible; hope of Judgement Day and everyone rising again
  • Beatific vision
  • prayer
32
Q

Examples from Christianity that reflect the idea of religion as a reaction against helplessness

A
  • Jesus’ resurrection
  • Revelations 21:1-5: “I saw a new heaven and a new Earth for the first heaven and earth had passed away”
33
Q

What is the challenge of the anthropological evidence regarding the primal horde?

A
  • Darwin was merely speculating
  • It is generally accepted that people weren’t exclusively in hordes
  • There is no evidence for male alphas in humans
  • Not all societies worshipped totem objects
  • There is no evidence for ambivalent attitudes towards totems
  • Evans Pritchard disputed Freud
  • the idea of guilt behind handed down has been discredited
  • Primal crime never happened and couldn’t transmit guilt even if it did
34
Q

What is the challenge of the psychological evidence regarding the Oedipus complex?

A
  • Malinowski: ‘Sex and Repression’ - if the OC is responsible for all religions it must be universal and caused by our nature for it to precede religion
  • Trobiand Tribe: role of the father is the weak nurse. There is no evidence of OC. Their religion must have originated elsewhere
  • Animal kingdom; nothing in the nature of animals that could cause such a complex
  • Maybe it is the strict rules of religion that cause the OC, not the other way around?
35
Q

What is the challenge of Freud’s dependency on a narrow selection of evidence?

A
  • He has a procrustean approach; cuts evidence to fit his thinking
  • He fails to take into account religions that are based on female deities: Egyptian Isis cult
  • What about religions with no object of worship?
  • Fails to take into account of societies such as the Trobiand Tribe
36
Q

What is the challenge of Freud’s conclusion that religion should be overthrown?

A
  • Winnicott: religion is an essential buffer between mind and external repair
  • Helps humans adapt to environment and provide a source of comfort and familiarity
37
Q

What are some strengths of Freud’s theories?

A
  • Redirection of guilt
  • Instinctive desiree
  • Support of peers and modern psychologists
  • Evidence is based on years of analysis and research
38
Q

What are some weaknesses of Freud’s theories?

A
  • Lack of anthropological evidence: Darwin was just speculating
  • No universal Oedipus complex
  • Evidence base is too narrow: his theories were based on a limited and skewed sample of sick people
  • Inconsistent
39
Q

Reasons to suggest religious belief can be considered a neurosis

A
  • the ritualistic nature of religious activity mirrored aspects of a compulsive obsessive neurosis
  • Freud argued unconscious racial memories of the slaughter of the primal father involved a subconscious memory of events in human history (supported by Darwinian evolutionary theory). He saw parallels of this in the Eucharist
  • He argued that early childhood experiences of our own parents are connected to a sexual trauma (the Oedipus complex)
  • His studies (eg Little Hans) reaffirmed his view that religion was an outward expression of inner psychological conflict
  • The conflict is an imbalance in the personality that is reflected in certain neurotic behaviour akin to religious activity
  • The characteristic of a neurosis is a reawakening of repressed trauma which is accompanied by compulsive obsessional impulses: clearly seen in the ritualistic and liturgical aspects of many religions
40
Q

Reasons to suggest religious belief can NOT be considered a neurosis

A
  • Evidence to support Freud isn’t ‘scientific’ because it doesn’t represent the whole picture
  • He is selective in his evidence
  • There is little evidence to support the primal horde theory today in the field of biological and behavioural sciences: most think that there was a much greater variety of structure within the earliest groups/tribes
  • Research suggests most people base their idea of God on their mother, not father
  • Religious and theological ideas about God are much more complex than Freud’s theories suggest
  • Some may argue his views on religion and God were simplistic and theologically naive
  • It might be religion that causes OC, not the other way around
  • His hypothesis was impossible to verify so therefore unscientific
  • Freud was inclined to ignore information unsuited to what he wanted to prove and preferred to accept only what supported his views
  • He seems to misunderstand the essence of religion; he saw it merely in terms of sacred acts and rituals rather than a set of beliefs and doctrines that could be debated around evidence
  • There is a lack of respect and humility to Freud’s approach in ignoring the maturity and complexity of religious traditions
41
Q

Reasons to believe Freud’s explanation of religious belief is adequate

A
  • Freud concluded that neurotic behaviour was an expression of repressed trauma, so it seems reasonable that religion must have the same origin
  • His theory of the Oedipus complex identified another form of repression involving a sons sexual attraction to his mother but resenting the father
  • Support for these views could be found in Darwin’s theory of the primal horde, Smith’s work on the totemic system, and the Oedipus complex supported by the work of Kline
42
Q

Reasons to believe Freud’s explanation of religious belief is inadequate

A
  • Fundamental approach
  • All Freud has were theories; no clear verifiable evidence or statistical data
  • His selective methodologies and validity of his conclusions have been questioned and attacked
  • Darwin’s primal horde theory has been rejected and the idea of a surprised memory of guilt that is universal has been ridiculed
  • He was no academic in the field of theology and religious studies
  • His approach displays naivety and ignorance
  • “I am reading books without being really interested in them, since I already know the results, my instinct tells me that”; arrogant and unscientific

Religious Studies: Philosophy (25 decks)

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