God and Man in Freudian Psychoanalysis: A Critical Examination of Freud’s The Future of an Illusion

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

In this article, we have attempted to scrutinize Freud’s psychological analysis of man and God. Four different interpretations of this Freudian analysis have been examined hereunder. Freud believes that religion is the outcome of wishful thinking or fear. Freud’s views on the origin of religion have been stated in a detailed fashion in his works on psychoanalysis. His The Future of an Illusion is the focus of our study of his views on God and man in this article. Freud held that the idea of God is simply a subjective illusion, since theism is only the product of father-complex. He suggested that every child is helpless, and for this reason depends upon his human father. As the child grows up, he finds that he cannot depend on his father for protection from a hostile and intolerable world. Therefore, he concocts an idea of a divine being and projects his image of his father unto a cosmic scale. He then turns to this figment of his imagination for security and comfort.

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References

Freud, Sigmund. 1959. Collected Papers. Translated by Joan Riviere. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
———. 1961. The Future of an Illusion. Translated by James Strachey. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Lee, Atkinson. 1934. “The Freudian Illusion.” London Quarterly and Holborn Review 159: 507-13.
Moore, Dale H. 1941. “Freud and Religion.” The Personalist 22: 169-73.
Mozley, J. F. 1930. “Freud and Religion.” Church Quarterly Review 111: 44-64.
Trueblood, David. 1942. The Logic of Belief. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers.
Turner, J. E. 1931. “Freud and the Illusion of Religion.” Journal of Religion 11: 212-21.

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