The Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on Freud's Wolf-Man: A Hypothesis (With an Epilogue Based on Visits with the Wolf-Man): Author's Response to John A. P. Millet

Dr. Millet's remarks are the product of serious reflection. Because of this, I am especially gratified by his favorable evaluation of the general thesis and value his criticisms and fresh ideas as significant addenda.

While encouraging the psychoanalytic study of religious ideation, Dr. Millet warns that a special interest in it may prejudice the analyst's interpretive work. I can testify to the importance of this warning from my own experience. If one is forever ferreting out religious allusions, he may overlook more timely observations.

In general, interpretations of religious ideation should be made only if they are capable of illuminating whole patterns of behavior better than any other formulation. Inadequate, premature interpretations are likely to serve merely as vehicles for game-playing or total rejection. Moreover, there are dangers in communicating to the analysand that one is especially interested in the psychology of religion. This may create problems similar to those that arise from letting him in on the nature of one's own religious beliefs or disbeliefs.

Dr. Millet was very kind to my thesis except for the three ideas he regarded as doubtful or farfetched. No one can get up quite high enough so that his vision is equidistant from all aspects of the psychic scene, and Dr. Millet's nonproprietary views may be more objective than mine, which, nevertheless, I would like to defend.

The first concerns my suggestion that the number five refers to the five wounds of Christ. I would be more inclined to agree with Dr. Millet if the Wolf-Man had attended a Christian church in the United States, for most of our churches have a more anemic view of the crucified Christ than do Orthodox Russian churches.

Impressionable children in Russia were exposed (much as Mexican children are today) to superhuman representations of the crucified figure in which the red blood flowed freely from gaping wounds. Because of this, the five wounds were more likely to become an inhe