Sigmund Freud: The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents

The Psychological Origins of Religion

“In past times religious ideas, in spite of their incontrovertible lack of authentation, have exercised the strongest possible influence on mankind.” Freud would conclude that this idea, in part, is due to totemism, and his ideas of the external influence on the internal ego. By doing so, Freud is attempting to validate the feeling on experiences, or a feeling of being “one with the universe”, and disproving God.
Totemism is defined as belief in kinship with or a mystical relationship between a group or an individual and a totem.

A totem is a class of objects which a group holds to be holy. By doing so, the group holds a superstitious respect, believing to have a “spiritual connection” with this object. This object extends anything, from animals, to people, from plants, to inanimate things. Freud concluded that this Totem could be ones father. He came to this conclusion considering a cannibalistic group of young men who killed their father and then consumed him; Freud describes this act as both a common act and a festival. This act provoked an “irresistible emotional reaction with momentous consequences.” This father became the image of God, and in his death he became more powerful as the sons remembered him differently. The sons originally hated their father, but once he was gone, they remembered the good things about him. They respected him only after they had killed him, and since they only remembered the good, it made the act of killing their father wrong, which resulted in the classic term “Thou Shalt not kill”.

He then goes on to say that children must go through a state of neurosis, or developmental changes. He explains that children start out with their natural primal instincts and then have to be taught, and have their minds molded, to act more civilized as they grow older, in order to become functional in today’s society. All children possess the Id ego, and this ego seeks only pleasure, and is highly impulsive. This ego has no way to distinguish the internal world from the external. As the child ages and gains higher cognitive abilities, it is able to distinguish between the external and internal, making progressive steps towards reality. The ego’s biggest threat is the external world, and so the ego takes steps to protect itself from the external. This strive for protection and perfection narrows the ego, however the sense of what the ego was is still present in the individual.

Freud shared his writings with a friend of his whom, after reading them, claimed that although his writings were correct, he was missing an aspect of religion: the sense of unity with the universe. Frued’s friend, although not affiliated with any religion, was religious in that he experienced this sense of infinite power, this feeling being with him at all times.

            The combination of the totemism of the primitive father who was killed and became the idea of “god” and this sense of limitless power, guides one to an idea such as God. Freud then defines God as an illusion, a construct of development of the human species, defining the unconscious feelings and actions as being God and in the actuality, God is simply the result of the Ego making sense of the world.

Id – a part of a person's unconscious mind that relates to basic needs and desires

Ego – a part of the mind that senses and adapts to the real world

Superego – a part of a person's mind that relates to attitudes about what is right and wrong and to feelings of guilt

Freud's views on religion concerning the Id, Ego, and Superego

• Freud is basically saying indirectly that religion is a learned and developed thought process (through growing awareness with Id, Ego, and Superego). Do you agree with Freud that your faith and religion is learned and developed over time, or do you believe that you were born with a natural sense of God that cannot be taught?
• Looking back at Freud's friend, do you believe that you can not be religious, but still have this sense of infinite power and unity with the universe with you at all times, as his friend claims to experience?