Clinical Aspects of Religion as Neurosis

One of the most unfortunate misconceptions surrounding Freud's original psychoanalytic theories is the claim that he viewed all religion as being nothing but neurosis and that it was, as such, a totally useless atavism of man's primal struggles with guilt and incestuous or oedipal desires. Indeed, the general field pf psychoanalysis occasionally experiences waves of public ire with what is construed to be psychoanalysis’ irreligious or, at best, areligious assumptions. Proper perspectives on both Freud's actual intent as well as valid defenses against psychoanalysis’ alleged atheism have been supplied by Fromm, Nuttin, Zilboorg, and others. However, there do arise cases where even the most sympathetic analyst or therapist must wonder whether or not there are bona fide neurotic components in a religious client's problem or even inherent in the very nature of that client's religious makeup. There are surely situations where one is compelled to maintain that religion can be a neurosis for certain individuals. I wish to discuss here a clinical example involving some of the manifestations of neurosis in an otherwise “wholesome” religious personality. (It should be stated at the outset that by “religious personality” I mean an individual in whom general personality development and behavioral dispositions and actions are governed and influenced by religious beliefs.)

Clark has already made reference to conflict which comes about for the religious personality-where such conflict is of a religious nature; that is, a conflict involving religious ideals and issues. While it is true that many individuals who have been termed primary religious personalities (that is, individuals for whom religion plays a central role in more than half of their actions and thoughts) can experience great anxiety and ego disorientation when religious conflict occurs, their experience must not be equated with the situation of other persons who have deep-seated psychological disequilibrium which also