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Theme 1: Challenges to religious belief - Coggle Diagram
Theme 1: Challenges to religious belief
Jung
Archetypes
shadow
mother
Religion is a natural process which stems from the archetypes within the unconscious mind
Religion performs the function of harmonising the psyche
: .
a beneficial phenomenon
Removal of religion would lead to psychological problems (a complete opposite view to Freud)
Dreams
3 Types of dreams
Oracle
Symbol Dreams
Where the meaning or event is unclear, people may have had dream interpreters to interpret the symbol of the dream
Was Freuds protégé until they disagreed over God. Jung came from a Swiss Catholic family an his father was a priest. Jung used his dream to understand God. Jung often said that he
"knows God"
.
Freud
Neurotic Behaviour
History of religion;
Magic
Religion
Science
"Religion is comparable to childhood neurosis"
Psychosis (unaware) and neurosis (ocd) must have been caused by something = Religion
Religious rituals are obsessive acts, because of this we have developed these prohibitions.
In the rituals of slaying and eating the totem animal lies the oedipal wish to till and devour the father.
Religion is therefore mankinds oedipus complex
Religion is a result from repressed traumatic memories which are sexual in nature.
: .
religion is an illusion resulting from sexual difficulties
It is the desire to worship the father s a figure based on guilt. it is infantile, neurotic and irrational ~ Freud
Sexual trauma---->Causes trauma = Religion
having certain compulsive habits are similar to religious rituals
: .
seen as a form of neurotic behaviours, the actions are not the illness they are the symptoms
Psychoanalysis has reviled that Ks are the symptoms of neurosis, religion also exhibits Ks,
: .
religion is a neurotic illness
Reductionist = believed that the human personality can be reduced to one cause
Wish fulfilment
Religion requires people to make difficult decisions forcing them into
self hedonism
A pursuit of pleasure / sensual self indulgence
/------> the highest aim in humanity
Primal Horde theory
Religion could be seen as an escape from the finality of death. God and heaven give us hope and reassurance that we will see family again and that death is not the end
Freud used Malinowskis work which found evidence to support to support wish fulfilment and a supporter of wish fulfilment
Freud : Religion denies reality. Retreat to infancy helplessness. Satisfies the longing for a father figure
Guilt was observed to play a fundamental role in the psyche. Guilt must
: .
have an original cause.
At one point in time there must have been a violation of a law which created this inherent sense of guilt (Murder of a father figure / dominant male)
Oceanic Feeling :
Freud renamed it
WF
Sense of unity in the external world, feeling of being one with God
In all religious teachings
overwhelming feeling
Wish fulfilment :
Freud
Uses "Oceanic feeling" to say that we as adults have an overwhelming desire to retreat back to infancy, a time when we felt safe
: .
we created this God figure to protect us
Religion doesn't always provide a comfort blanket, some people used to be persecuted for their beliefs (protestant persecution 1490s)
Supported by Malinowski who found evidence for
WF
in rituals made by islanders to maintain psychological well being
humans cannot cope with life as independent beings
: .
be go back to parents for safety and comfort
---->
regressing to the womb as a coping mechanism
Consciousness
Oedipus complex
The
Id
requires love and affection, the child knows its wrong to sexuality desire one parent and ignore the other.
The stage ends once the child represses its sexual instincts and identifies with the parent of the same sex
= the origin for moral development and conscience
Sublimation
= turning sexual desires into socially acceptable behaviour
Oedipus Complex
= male childs desire for sexual involvement with his mother
Electra Complex
= female childs desire for sexual involvement with her father
Mans main goal in life is to;
detachment from his mother
reconciliation with his father
find someone to love who is not identical to his mother
lead to a very deep seated feeling of guilt starting at a very young age
libedo- sexual drive
Basic to our personality
Iceburg analogy
Conscious
Unconscious; instincts, fears, trauma, passion
Pre-conscious ; dreams, and memories of recent experience
Ego
-2-5
-Controls the Id
-Rational / Realistic
-Exists in all 3 stages of consciousness
-Conscious self, obvious in everyday personality
Id
-birth-2,
-first to develop collective urges
-intrinsic drive
-unconscious self
no concern about right or wrong (
Amoral
)
Super ego
-5+
-Collection of moral teachings
-Differences between right and wrong are being learnt
-A set of moral controls given to us by the outside
influence / moral code
-Always in conflict with the ego
Critical evaluation of Freud
"Almost all the evidence that Freud presents can be and has been discredited in one way or another" ~Michael Palmer
no evidence for primal horde theory
no evidence for oedipus complex
Freuds dependence on a narrow selection of evidence is a weakness in the theory
Freuds conclusion that religion should be overthrown is an unfulfilled wish of his
Malinowski says that the father figure was not authoritative but more a glorified benevolent friend whereby they show unconditional love towards. The theory is not universal because of
matrilineal societies
. The oedipus complex could only account for a male god
group adhering to a kinship system in which ancestral descent is traced through maternal instead of paternal lines
Atheism
