Religion in the Light of Psycho-Analysis

The study of religious phenomena by means of the psychoanalytic method has already led to results of immense importance for all who have either a theoretical or practical interest in the subject. Indeed Freud's theory of the origin of existing kinds of religion is comparable to Darwin's theory of the origin of existing kinds of animals. Darwin gave the world some good reasons for believing in the evolution of complex animals from simple organisms; and Darwinians have shown that elaborate forms of religious faith have developed from simpler and cruder symbols. Even believers in a divine revelation usually admit that some determining factors of the new truth are to be discovered in previous religious symbolism. Christianity, for example, did not come down from heaven ready made; its roots are clearly seen to lie in the soil of its Jewish and Greek environment. It is generally agreed that religions grow; but the manner of their growth has been the subject of many conflicting theories.

It is the work of Freud and his followers that has given the world a clearer idea of the forces that cause religions to spring up, develop and decay in almost every society. In the light of the new psychology of the unconscious, religion appears no longer either as an inexplicable miracle of divine grace or as a rational device of crafty and greedy priests. In certain conditions of life and culture, religion is as natural a product of the psyche as poetry, phantasy and other means of diversion from painful work. The Freudian is not content to accept the religious man's reasons for the faith that is in him. These “reasons” are discovered often to be a mere afterthought, a rationalization or a forcing of unconscious tendencies and desires into forms that are acceptable to the moral consciousness. Religious belief gives a symbolic satisfaction for hidden impulses, lowly emotions and primitive ideas. The psycho-analysts have proved that in religion the wish is verily father to the thought.

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