'A study of the psychology of belief with reference to the influence of Freud\r'

'For numerous plurality, pietism has been a pillar of our gild for as long as we rump trace back. A psychologist however, would argue that holiness genuine from the day that the people of our society started questioning their existence. As Sigmund Freud, physiologist, doctor, psychologist and the fix of psycho digest, is in general recognised as one of the most important and authoritative thinkers of the twentieth cytosine, we need to consider his analysis of devotion when approaching this topic.\r\n tho as approximately of Freuds theories were unquestionable over a century agone is it re e re every last(predicate)y last(predicate)y possible to apply them to our society now, especi eithery as our society is so multicultural and trustfulness still cooks a key role within many peoples expires? According to Sigmund Freud holiness is an â€Å"illusion” we as a society or as individuals, waken up for ourselves, for a number of key reasons. The frontmost base and most essential reason Freud claims we turn to religion is as a demeanor of expressing psychological bruise from our puerility.\r\nThe second is we turn to religion as a direction of overcoming and retaining dangers from the natural worldly concern, in hoping to gain curtail â€Å"the necessity of defending one self against the crushingly superior crowd of nature. ” The third is that religion is employ as a stress relief, stress that has developed from manners history in a suppressive society that condones the carri sequence of familiar desire.\r\nA final exam key reason Freud developed is that we follow religion to pr up to nowt the savoring of impuissance we tail get when we no longer suck in the protection of our parents or guardians: â€Å"And olibanum a workshop of brains is created, born from mans need to make his helplessness tolerable and built up from the memories of the helplessness of his own small fryishness and the puerility of the mer ciful race” I shall cut across Freuds key idea to begin with: religion is a way of expressing psychological anguish. All of Freuds work is center around the idea of our unconscious or our subconscious.\r\nFreud claimed that as tiddlerren, any emotional torment we whitethorn suffer, alternatively of dealing with it directly at the metre, we suppress it in our unconscious mind, only to channel it into a nonher freeing ulterior in life as an compulsion or repulsion of any particular construction of life. This is referred to as sublimation. One of the ways in which a person may choose to â€Å"channel” their contradict experiences is through religion. This come to was brought to Freuds attention as he began to notice similarities in his patients irresistible impulses in relation to the origin of their compulsive behaviour as to that of a ghostly person and their faith.\r\nBoth lead a emblematic meaning to the follower and charter a raise ritual †failure to complete this ritual (however unwavering it may be) leads to transgressiony experienceings of regret. Seeing this comparison Freud came to the result that religion is an separate form of neurotic affection that stems from our unconscious. Freud past began to address the matter of what subdue toneings from childhood actually were. It is through this sentiment he developed the c at a timept of the â€Å"Oedipus Complex â€Å".\r\nThis suggests that as children, young boys hold loving feelings of a knowledgeable nature for their mothers. through this they develop feelings of envy and hatred for their fathers. Due to the society we live on in the Oedipus composite has to be stamp down as it is not acceptable behaviour yet the familiar urges, Freud claims, are still in that respect. It is these urges that are pushed to our unconscious that later come out in obsession or infatuation with slightlything †obviously in this sideslip †religion. â€Å"Thus rel igion would be a e veryday obsessional neurosis of hu worldly concern.\r\nJust like the obsessive neurosis in children it springs from the Oedipus thickening, the relationship with the Father” As mentioned before Freud made a direct link between psychological anguish and wrong and religion and guilt. Freud put forward a process that cosmos subroutine to channel their guilt, particularly that of a familiar nature from the Oedipus/Electra multiform. In an attempt to rid themselves of these feelings of guilt the person develops idols or Gods. By doing this they feel they ordure repent for their guilt by worship or sacrifice to these idols.\r\nInitially the idol may be a representation of the childs Father yet later on, in the same way the Father is jilted through Oedipus, the God is changed to an brute of a aboriginal sort. The animal becomes sacred and inflicting harm upon the animal becomes a sin. Sacrifices are made to and worship becomes a ritual. This first confro nt of sublimation Freud labelled as animism. The second introduce is, however, called religion. During this stage, the animal develops the status of a God and once again takes the form of the father conception thus completing the cycle from Oedipus to religion.\r\nAs Freud said â€Å"I put forward a suggestion that mankind as a whole may claim acquired its sense of guilt of its history, in connection with the Oedipus hard” Closely linked to this is the theory that religion is used as a â€Å"stress” relief, stress that is determined on us by the society we live in. The stress that is answerd by the suppression of our natural urges as children. This stress forces us to channel our libido into other empyreans of thinking and working, areas in life that are to a greater extent socially acceptable.\r\nAs I explained previously it is common for this area to be religion and worship. Freuds second theory for religion is that we use religion as a way of protecting ourse lves or overcoming terrors from the natural world. The caper of condemnable and suffering and religion has long being a conflict for many philosophers and psychologists. It is through this conflict that â€Å"St. Augustines Theodicy” was developed. St. Augustine base his blood lines on the Bible and his theodicy suggests that God is perfect and created the world perfectly.\r\nCreated things are susceptible to change and evil comes from angels and human beings that chose to turn away from God. Augustine concluded that God cannot be blamed for creating evil since evil is not a substance kinda than a deprivation (a neediness of good) and it is not logical to march God created that deprivation. disrespect this theory and many others that throw off been presented to us since the problem of evil and suffering is what entrusts science a high appeal than religion to many people living today further it is besides, according to Freud why we take a chance out religion in the first place.\r\nReligion offers us a â€Å"reward” for any suffering we may keep inflicted upon us during our lifetime and adds meaning to life and its suggest. Otherwise we would be suffering unnecessarily and on that point would be no window pane to continue with life. as well through prayer and worship we feel we can examine naturally occurring events that can cause us suffering much(prenominal) as death, illness, natural disasters and so on We do this in an attempt to abolish our fears of things we cannot control or change and hope to have some power over them through religion.\r\nFreuds next point is not dissimilar to the ideas of Karl Marx. Marxists would claim that religion is boost by the state to enforce order in society. Freud suggested a purpose for religion is that it is developed to give us a reason to obey countenance. unheeding whether it is state authority or religious authority according to Freud people develop an attitude that â€Å"Everythi ng in our world is an expression of the intentions of intelligence superior to us, which in the end, though its ways and byways are difficult to follow, orders everything for the best. We feel that if we disobey we shall not be rewarded, or worsened punished for our crime or sin and we, by consequence, do not disobey. Freud came to the conclusion that religion moldiness be overthrown for society to develop and progress. A final key reason Freud presents for humans fabricating religion is to prevent the feeling of helplessness we can get when we no longer have the protection of our parents or our guardians. This is merely that we develop â€Å"Gods” in order to protect ourselves, so we have individual to care for us and someone to look up to in the same way that we as children looked up to our parents.\r\nWhen Freuds theories were first published they were considered late controversial, interestingly though people took interest in what he said and took his psychoanalytical theory very seriously because at the time science was beginning to make its breakthrough and Freuds explanations were fresh and appealing to many. However whether theories that were developed over a century ago can still be relevant today is a different consideration.\r\nFor Freuds work to still be relevant today, when science has developed further than psychology, which in comparison is considered the â€Å"soft science,” in that location would have to be some evidence to support the basics of Freuds theory. Freud found his â€Å"Oedipus Complex” on the ideas of Darwinism, a stage of life in prehistoric men when the family unit was the â€Å" primary horde”. It consisted of a mother a father and offspring. As the dominant mannish the father would shake off any male threat to the female. This act until all the male offspring joined unitedly and turned on the father and eventually killed him.\r\nThe idea of religion stemming from guilt is not such a cont roversial one, particularly linking to versed guilt and religion. sacred figures have often condemned sexual activity for the use of anything other than reproduction. Figures such as St. Augustine (who was greatly influenced by Plato) viewed sex and sexual desire as â€Å"having been enter by the Devil at the time of the finalise” as Peter Vardy explains Augustine claimed that it was best to avoid all sexual activity even within wedlock.\r\nIf the place should occur when sex was needed for reproduction past the man â€Å"should descend to his task with a certain(p) regret. ” Peter Vardy also outlines the common Catholic teaching method which even today, in what we like to consider a sexually liberated society is still very traditional in its approach, namely: ††Masturbation is flagitious since this intend using genitalia for a purpose for which they are not intended †provoke can never have pleasure or the expression of love as its main object s ince, again, this office using genitalia for a purpose for which they were not intended Homosexuality, if it is practised, is deeply sinful as this means using genitalia for a purpose for which they were not intended since procreation cannot result and it is â€Å"against nature” So considering people are still raised to think sex for any other reason other than reproduction is sinful, it is easy to see why sexual feelings may lead to feelings of guilt.\r\nParticularly as sexual feelings are present throughout all stages of childhood that Freud identifies in the following ways: from birth to the age of eighteen months the child goes through what Freud named the â€Å"Oral Stage. This is to say all gratification of learning is gained through the embouchure (feeding, chewing, sucking fingers etc. ) From eighteen months to three eld the child progresses into the â€Å"Anal Stage” this normally happens when the child goes through potty training and often as a result develops fascination in anus and faeces. The plosive of time between three and six years of age was coined as the â€Å" phallic Stage” and its during this stage that the child develops features of the Oedipus heterogeneous (if male) or the Electra mazy (if female).\r\n after(prenominal) the initial rush of feelings from the phallic stage have passed the child falls into the â€Å"Latent Stage” during which Freud claims at that place is no sexual development but this could be due to a suppression of the sexual feelings from the â€Å"Phallic stage. ” The final stage of childhood according to Freud is the â€Å"genital Stage” and depending on how the childs feelings from their younger years were dealt with, this is the time when sexual desire develops and is explored deeper.\r\nSo if a child is raised to deny themselves the sexual feelings their body releases then they may begin to feel sinful or guilty for having these feelings in the first place. an d then for Freud to find a link between sex, guilt and religion is not entirely controversial. This all acts as evidence towards Freuds theories and the relevance they hold in our society today. However, that said, there is plenty of reason why Freuds theories are not at all relevant to us in such a developed society.\r\nFreud has been criticised for focusing on the link between a father figure and a â€Å"God” in religions such as Judaism and, of course, Christianity. He fails to address eastern cultures and religions, which are ground on worship of female idols or Goddesses,” such as the Egyptian Isis cult and Buddhism who have no one single object of worship. One of Freuds major critics, Bronislaw Malinowski, who went on to write a book called â€Å"Sex and Repression” disputed Freuds theory that religion develops from sexual guilt caused from the Oedipus complex.\r\nHe points out for Oedipus to be a complex it needs to be universal. You cannot apply a compl ex such as Oedipus to matriarchal tribes in which the male is not dominant and takes the role of a nurse. Malinowski also brings to our attention the lack of evidence for â€Å"Oedipus” within the animal kingdom, as Darwinism only applies to early mankind. Also there is less evidence of â€Å"Oedipus” leading to religion in our society today as it is becoming more and more secular and fewer people are turn to religion.\r\nThis could suggest that the Oedipus complex does not occur, or if it does it does not have a link to religion. It is more likely, however, that all children still do go through the Oedipus complex but as our society is more sexually liberated people are allowed to express sexual desire in other ways rather than it becoming sublimated and channelled into religion. Another key objurgation of the â€Å"Oedipus Complex” is the suggestion that religion is a cause of the complex rather than a result of it.\r\nIf it was not for religion then, it is possible, these sexual urges would not have been suppressed at an early stage and a complex would not begin to develop. It could be just a possible that a child was made to feel guilty about the loving feelings towards his Mother and as a consequence developed a complex (Oedipus. ) Rather than the â€Å"Oedipus Complex” leading to religion. Another more general criticism is that even if religion is a cause or result of guilt, or fear it still works as a â€Å" caramel” between the soul and reality.\r\nIt is essential to society, as, music, art or literature as it is an expression of self and belief. Therefore it is not sound to suggest, as Freud did that religion must be overthrown. ” Donald Winnicott essentially presented this criticism of Freuds work but is the popular feeling of many today. Psychology self †help book â€Å"Love is the Answer” presents the argument that some none †religious responses to misfortune of defeat e. g. Cynicism has actually been shown to be bad for physical health.\r\nSo a â€Å"religious” view (of forgiving and repenting) magnate actually be health giving to us, and to snub it from our society would be to dismiss this positive observation post on life. So Freuds theory may have been apt for his society, a society built on religious structure, and some of his points may appear to disengage the behaviour of people today. But I feel that in the twenty-first century when we are all encouraged to express our beliefs, ideas, sexuality and â€Å"bare our souls”, a theory based on suppression (even if it is unconscious) seems radical.\r\nI think religion itself has become more bountiful and has resulted in many â€Å"branches” of Christianity all with a different strand of tradition. Some â€Å"branches” base their morals on the word of the Bible where as others feel that we have to â€Å"update” the word of God and adapt it to how we live today. To apply a th eory from a century ago is to digress, in the same way engine room has evolved, and our knowledge of our universe and surroundings have developed, we have to advance spiritually. We have to question what we already know, even if this means abandoning Freuds theories and all its implications.\r\n'