Jürgen Straub presents a working paper on 'The Past of an Illusion. Sigmund Freud’s Criticism of Religion'

The paper presents a compilation of three fragments of a book chapter dedicated to Freud’s psychoanalytic criticism of religion. In the first part, the most important sources (like Freud’s “The Future of an Illusion”, “Totem and Taboo. Resemblances between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics” or “Moses and Monotheism”) are listed and related to Freud’s practical and political aim to criticize, deconstruct and destruct religious beliefs and the faith in God. In the second fragment I describe Freud’s pre-psychoanalytic stance against religion which is rooted in his scientific beliefs and (partially naïve) devotion to science. Freud’s rationalism (paradoxically) remains strong in his psychoanalytic theory and particularly in his critique of religion. The most important arguments and concepts are remembered (e.g. infant illusion, compulsive neurosis). The essential elements of Freud’s criticism of religion and faith are illustratively described in the third part. There, I very sketchily refer to a kind of ‘case study’ (a telling conversation between Freud and an US-American medical doctor who tries to convert the atheist Freud to a true believer’s faith in God).

All in all the presented reconstruction of some main features of Freud’s approach to religion leads into a detailed criticism of Freud’s aversion to religious beliefs and faith. This critical analysis and the resulting counter-arguments are not part of the working paper. I want to present them in the first ten minutes of the colloquium very briefly.