Lessons from Freud

The Viennese psychoanalyst, despite being an atheist himself, had some remarkable insights into the nature of religion

Mehru Jaffer

I recently returned from a trek into the subconscious psychodynamics of the present political climate. Looking back, I find that the trip was filled with aggressive experiences encountered in almost every hill and valley traversed around the world.

Led by Vamik Volkan, Emeritus professor of Psychiatry, “The Journey of the Mind” was organised as part of the 150th birth anniversary of Dr. Sigmund Freud, one of Vienna’s most famous citizens. According to Volkan, there are tell-tale signs everywhere to prove that contemporary society is on the verge of regression. This is because those fighting “terrorists” apply a political doctrine that is as regressive as the murderous idea of the “terrorists” themselves. The unfortunate fall-out is a world forced into a vicious circle of violence and counter-violence.

Amidst loud cries from the extreme sides claiming closeness to God and being “very special” because each side feels the absolute truth is on their side, the voice of others trying to understand the cause of violence is drowned.

Armed with little except decades of psychoanalytical experience, the Sigmund Freud Private Foundation is now concerned with making voices heard of all those who can provide a prescription to vaccinate a very sick world.

Along with two diplomats, two psychiatrists were invited to a panel on “Psychoanalysis and Politics: Terror, Regression and Violence”, in an attempt to share views on the explosive growth of violence in present-day society and to together find possible solutions against the tremendous social threats and tensions faced by one and all.

Since religion is the talk of all towns and Islamic militants the cause of every ill, the question revolves around the collaboration between psychoanalysts and diplomats, and whether it can offer fresh insights into terrorism and the world’s response to it?  

The speakers began by expanding Freud’s theory of group psychology and to define group identity and regression. The last fifteen years of Freud’s life was devoted to analysing religion from a psychoanalytic point of view.

Freud interprets the formation of religions in terms of a conflict between nature and culture. “Religions are remarkable compromise formations: they allow the human being to admit its extraordinary vulnerability and at the same time, to retain a sense of superiority in relation to the surrounding reality. The price for the compromise is the submission to an ‘illusion’.”

In “Future of an Illusion”, Freud defines religion as compulsive neurosis. He is critical of religion and yet optimistic about the possibility to overcome it.

Religious dogmas are not the result of experience or thinking, but they are refined fantasies and religion is defined as a response to the experience of utter helplessness or dependency of human beings on the forces of nature. Religion is fantasy that makes life tolerable despite hardships, and even negates death as the final end of human life.