Psychology And Religion Flashcards
1
Q
Who was the very first advocate of a psychological approach to religion?
A
Ludwig Feurbach
2
Q
What did Feuerbach argue?
A
- reality of God can be reduced to a human projection
- “God did not make man in his own image…man has made God in his image”
- argued religion is actually the study of man- “theology is anthropology”
- god is essentially an idealist version of a human being. Humans are not capable of achieving perfection so project it onto the idea of God all those qualities which they would like to have
- humans are driven by their imperfect nature
- “divine being is nothing else than…the human nature purified”
3
Q
What did Sigmund Freud argue in general?
A
- “at bottom God is nothing other than an exalted father” “God is an infantile projection of the human need for protection.”
- belief in god needs to be cured- a neurosis
- religion is an illusion
- he was an atheist
- religion is created by the mind to help overcome inner psychological conflict, stress which stems from the structure of society and fear of the dangers of the natural world
- saw link between the behaviour of his patients in relation to the source of their obsession and religious people in relation to their object of worship. Both involve highly specific ritual behaviour.
4
Q
Religion as an aid to over come inner psychological conflict
A
- terrors of the natural world- religion offers stability in dealing with helplessness, eg. in the face of death- fulfils our wish to feel safe and secure in the world
- conflict of society/instinct- society stops us following the id’s desires, but religion (the need to obey God) acts as human conscience, promising that controlling the instincts will be rewarded for in the afterlife
- the longing for a father figure- believers turn to God for protection from the evils of the world; Freud says that this is simply a form of wish fulfilment, an illusion
5
Q
Oedipus Complex and Freud’s opinion
A
- Freud- “at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience…earliest childhood”
- idea of libido in babies and repressed sexual desire
- mind cannot fully repress memories in the unconscious mind so they surface in neurotic symptoms
- unconscious mind creates God as a projection of the early father figure
- all human beings long for an unconditional father figure who can accept them as they are and forgive all the dark sides of their character
6
Q
Libido and repression
A
- sexual drive is the body’s most basic urge and capable of causing most psychological problems within the development of the individual, not just about desire for sex, represents the bodies general subconscious desire for satisfaction from the unconscious mind
- in babies it centres around the mouth- desire to suckle, wants sole attention of the mother which leads to jealousy, hatred, respect and fear for the father, unable to carry out wishes so it is suppressed in the unconscious mind which later surface as neurotic symptoms e.g. religion
7
Q
What is the key question?
A
Did God create us or have we created God?
8
Q
Religious as a collective neurosis
A
- Freud’s work on hysteria patients
- work on hypnosis and study of dreams
- ego- reality principle, secondary process thinking
- superego- moral imperative
- id, pleasure principle, primary process thinking
9
Q
Support for the Oedipus Complex
A
primal horde theory
- Freud used Darwin’s work to speculate that in primitive societies, the social unit was the primal horde- people arranged around a single, dominant male who had total authority over the group and claim over all the females
- resentment of the younger males grows leading them to feel AMBIVALENT towards the dominant male- hatred, jealousy and respect. They group together and kill him. Their veneration and respect makes them feel very guilty so they idolise the deceased dominant male and make him into a totem of worship.
- Freud gave 5 major case studies to illustrate the Oedipus complex- one was Wolf Man- Sergei Pankejeff who had a fear of animals, Freud traced it back to when Pankejeff was a child he witnessed sexual acts of his parents. Over time the repressed trauma surfaced as God and a fear of wolves.
10
Q
Animism
A
- first stage of development of religion
- when suffering from extreme guilt, mind’s defence mechanism is to create idols
- involves investing stones, trees or animals with spirits
- mind is therefore able to control feelings of guilt
- idol is transformation of the father, so it is treated with ambivalence like original father
- Freud’s case studies demonstrate that patients with Oedipus complex often transfer fear onto animals
- took it further onto primal horde, totems were often animals
- generally the ambivalence remained so that the animal was forbidden to be harmed at all, except for ritual killings
11
Q
Religion as wish fulfilment
A
- in ‘the future of illusion (1927)’, Freud outlined his view that religious belief is reaction against helplessness, providing adults with a father figure who can protect as the father protected the child
- Christian religion fulfils wishes for someone to look after us in a harsh world. God is ultimate ideal of a father, being all loving, all powerful and totally dependable, giving people reassurance that the future is in safe hands in an unstable and uncertain world
- “it would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence and there were a moral order and an afterlife…all this is exactly as we wish it to be”
- religious belief is “an adolescent stage in the development of the human race from which humanity should free itself”
- “at bottom god is nothing other than an exalted father” or God is an invention of the superego
12
Q
Freud’s conclusion about the value of religion
A
- Freud admitted that he could not prove god didn’t exist, god could exist objectively
- but he pointed out that beliefs that are derived from basic psychological needs e.g. the beliefs of obsessional neurotics which are invariably false
- Freud argued that absence of evidence for religion means that we can justify it as false
- supports a complete rejection of all things religious
- at the end of the book he creates a conversation with an opponent which raises two important points on religion- without it civilisation turned into anarchy without fear of divine judgement, depriving people of religion is needlessly cruel as many people find comfort
- Freud admitted that religion has performed some ‘great services for civilisation’ and accepted that if religion were entirely positive it would be cruel to deprive people, illusion it may be
- but religion is not beneficial we it does not prevent people from rebelling and people have abused religion to justify social immortalities, also used as a tool of repression, religion doesn’t always stop people from sinning
13
Q
What was Freud’s alternative to religion?
A
- scientific rational understanding of the world
- this would make people more willing to obey the demands of civilisation, see them as for their own personal good
- believe it was possible for humans to be educated to make unruly passions subservient to their wills
- Freud argued that the pain of removing religion would be more than justified by the benefits
14
Q
Critical evaluation of Freud
A
Michael Palmer- “almost all the evidence that Freud presents has been discredited in one way or another”
E.E Evans-Pritchard- no evidence for primal horde
Bronislaw Malinowski- no evidence for Oedipus complex
-Freud’s dependence on a narrow selection of evidence
-unjustifiable negative view of religion- Donald Winnicott- religion helps people to adapt to their environment,,,, Ana Maria Rizzuto- religion is no more of an illusion than science, both involve human interpretation
15
Q
How has Freud’s work on the Oedipus Complex been disputed?
A
- anthropological evidence for the primal horde
- psychological evidence- Trobriand Race where father is the primary carer
- narrow selection of evidence
- unjustifiably negative view of religion
