God, Freud and Religion: The origins of faith, fear and fundamentalism

235 Pages·2015·6.57 MB·English

by  Dianna T. Kenny

GOD, FREUD AND RELIGION
Does God exist? Was Freud right to view religion as a residue of infantile wish-fulfi llment?
Can modern science and spirituality be reconciled? Not afraid to tackle the big questions,
Kenny’s prodigious combination of clarity and scholarship are exceptional. If Freud is the
Bach of modern psychology, reading her – uniquely a Professor of Music as well as Psychology
– is to encounter classic psychoanalytic scores interpreted in the light of contemporary
understanding. A must-read for all students of psychoanalysis, psychology, philosophy and
religion, and all who seek illumination in a post-modern world of chaos and confusion.
Professor Jeremy Holmes, MD, FRCPsych, University of Exeter, UK
This is a remarkable work of analysis and integration of perspectives. Dianna Kenny addresses
crucial questions: can science and religion pull together as a team instead of pulling apart?
Should we blame religious fanatics or religion itself for violence? Does religion have a
monopoly on values? The author canvasses questions of faith, extremism and violence in
Christian and Islamic religions and evokes parallels with nationalistic ideologies and dictatorial
regimes from earlier and more recent history. This work should help us understand how
fundamentalist beliefs are formed and why they are diffi cult to modify, and how religious
beliefs can be employed in the service of perverting human nature for political and other
secular purposes. Professor Kenny’s discussion of the formation of fundamentalist beliefs
can contribute towards understanding some of the underlying roots of current confl icts, for
example in the Middle East, and assist in confl ict resolution and the achievement of peace in
our troubled world. As such it is particularly timely.
Ahmad Shboul, AM, Former Chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic
Studies, The University of Sydney
Religious fundamentalism – what Kenny aptly characterizes as terror theology – has been
a major source of violence, both large scale and small, over the course of human history.
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the “holy” crusades are just two of a
multitude of examples of atrocities committed in the name of God. Thus Kenny’s penetrating,
exhaustive, multidisciplinary examination of the genesis of religious belief and how it has
been exploited for political purposes is no mere academic exercise. It is an attempt to locate
signifi cant roots of what philosopher Hannah Arendt aptly terms radical evil.
Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, author, W orld, Aff ectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and
Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2011)
Did God create man or did man create God? In this book, Dianna Kenny examines religious
belief through a variety of perspectives – psychoanalytic, cognitive, neuropsychological,
sociological, historical and psychiatric – to provide a coherent account of why people might
believe in God. She argues that psychoanalytic theory provides a fertile and creative approach
to the study of religion that attempts to integrate religious belief with our innate human
nature and developmental histories that have unfolded in the context of our socialization
and cultural experiences. Freud argued that religion is so compelling because it solves the
problems of our existence. It explains the origin of the universe, off ers solace and protection
from evil, and provides a blueprint about how we should live our lives, with just rewards for
the righteous and due punishments for sinners and transgressors. Science, on the other hand,
off ers no such explanations about the universe or the meaning of our lives and no comfort
for the unanswered longings of the human race.
Is religion a form of wish-fulfi lment, a collective delusion to which we cling as we try to
fathom our place and purpose in the drama of cosmology? Can there be morality without
faith? Are science and religion radically incompatible? What are the roots of fundamentalism
and terror theology?
These are some of the questions addressed in G od, Freud and Religion , a book that will
be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists and psychotherapists, students of psychology,
psychoanalysis, philosophy and theology and all those with an interest in religion and human
behaviour.
Dianna T. Kenny is Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is
the author of over 200 publications, including six books.
GOD, FREUD AND
RELIGION
The origins of faith, fear and
fundamentalism
Dianna T. K enny
First published 2015
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Dianna T. Kenny
The right of Dianna T. Kenny to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Kenny, Dianna T.
God, Freud and religion : the origins of faith, fear and fundamentalism / Dianna T. Kenny.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Freud, Sigmund, 1856–1939. 2. Psychology and religion. 3. Violence–
Religious aspects. 4. Psychoanalysis. I. Title.
BF173.F85K46 2015
200.1′9–dc23
2014039671
ISBN: 978-1-138-79132-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-79133-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76289-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
To
Sheryn and Anthony
and
Helen and Salome
who exemplify the
“meaning of life: the act of living itself”
(Erich Fromm)
A time there was – as one may guess
And as, indeed, earth’s testimonies tell –
Before the birth of consciousness,
When all went well.
Thomas Hardy, “Before Life and After” (1928),
from Winter Words (Gibson (2 001 ))
CONTENTS
List of tables ix
1 S cience, God and religion 1
Introduction 1
Freud, science and religion 4
Aims 7
2 D oes God exist? 1 0
The affi rmative argument 1 0
The negative argument 2 1
Science and religion 3 5
Religion and cognition 4 1
3 T he common origins in human nature of taboos,
conscience, neurosis and religion 4 8
The origin and meaning of totems and religion 4 8
Taboos: Totem and Taboo (1 913 ) 5 6
Freud and Durkheim on religion 6 5
4 F reud, religion, culture and philosophy 6 9
Exposition: The Future of an Illusion (1 927 ) 6 9
Civilization and its Discontents (1930) 7 4
Moses and Monotheism (1939): Freud’s fi nal religious and
philosophical contemplations 7 7
viii Contents
5 F reud, the demonic, madness and the fanciful 8 2
Historical context embeddedness of demonic phenomena and madness 82
A demonological illness: the case of Christoph Haizmann 88
Psychoanalytic explanations for demonological and other
‘religious’ phenomena in psychotic illnesses 90
The psychodynamics of myth, legend and fairy tale 94
The formative personal contexts of religious and philosophical thought 102
6 C ritiques of Freud’s theory on religion 1 09
Religion as a social construction and a wish-fulfi lling illusion 109
Contemporary psychoanalysis and religion 120
7 G roup psychology and the psychoanalysis of violence 130
The power of the collective: social psychology and group behaviour 130
Group processes 137
The psychoanalysis of violence 144
8 T error theology and fundamentalism 1 56
Facts and fi gures on the world’s religions 159
In the name of God: Christian fundamentalism 160
The birth of Islam: the Prophet Muhammad 170
In the name of Allah: Islamic fundamentalism 177
Conclusions and a cautionary tale 192
References 196
Index 216
TABLES
2.1 Percentages of Muslims who believe in God, that God is necessary
for human morality and that religion is very important in my life 1 9
2.2 Classifi cation criteria for h é autoscopy, out-of-body experience and
autoscopic hallucinations 3 8
2.3 Shared characteristics of the Unconscious and God 4 3
5.1 Mythical creatures and psychological function 9 7
8.1 Percentage of world population by religious affi liation 1 60
8.2 Percentage of Muslims who agreed that suicide bombing against
civilian targets is often or sometimes justifi ed, by country 1 80