D - Support and challenges to Freud

What two things need to be supported for Freud’s theory to be credible?

1. That the Oedipus complex is a universal sexual trauma.

2. The buried trauma can reappear in the form of religion.

Which famous figure did Freud use to support his theory of the Primal Horde?

• Freud used the work of Charles Darwin to speculate that in primitive societies, the social unit was something called the primal horde.

• This shows that the Oedipus complex is not simply a personal trauma, but one that has affected all society at a historical level.

• It helps to explain why religion is universal and why the concept of God is such a powerful one (because it stems from a historical experience that still affects us.)

Where does clinical support come from?

• Freud based much support for his theories about religious belief from his psychoanalysis of patients suffering from neurosis.

• His case studies showed him that repressed sexual feelings were at the root of neurosis.

 

• Some would argue that this gives him empirical evidence for his theories.

What is the case of Daniel Schreber?

• clinical support

• Freud analysed the case of German judge Daniel Schreber.

• His father died when he was 19, and when he was 35, his older brother committed suicide.

• Schreber himself suffered a mental breakdown after being defeated in a run for political office.

• Committed to a hospital, he was diagnosed as highly sensitive to stimuli - particularly noises, higly emotional, a hypochondriac, and suffering from speech impediments - he was released after 6 months.

• He relapsed after 8 years of relative normalcy.

• During these 8 years he wrote a book that Freud was fascinated by.

• During this period he believed his body was being turned into the body of a woman and that his ultimate purpose in life was to become pregnant with God's child.

 

• Freud concluded that Schreber's delusions centred around the first man who was treating him, Flechsig, and then later, God.

• The idea that he needed to become a woman in order to fulfil his purpose in life - become the mother to a new race of men - indicated that Schreber still feared his father, and latent fears of castration performed by his father manifested themselves in a belief that he was becoming a woman.

• When God became the central figure to his delusion, Flechsig became a hated figure rather than a saviour, suggesting to Freud that Schreber was also dealing with an intense, sexual attraction to Flechsig.

• When that wasn’t fulfilled, the Flechsig role morphed into the role of God, with Schreber filling the subservient, female role his father’s abuse had pushed him toward.

 

What is the case of Little Hans?

• Clinical support?

• Freud worked with a 5 year old boy called 'Little Hans' - brought to Freud by his father.

• The father was looking for help with Han's fear of horses.

• Freud's explanation for the little boys fear wasn’t just due to witnessing the traumatic death of one.

• According to Freud, Hans was particularly scared of horses that had black muzzles - and he saw this as an association with his father's Mustache.

• He didn’t like horses wearing binders either - Freud took this to mean that he was associating them with his father's glasses.

 

• Eventually, Freud diagnosed the little boys fear of horses as an extension of his Oedipus complex.

• Little Hans said, Freud said, was right in the middle of developing an intense sexual love for his mother and saw his father as a rival for her love and attention.

• His father was, of course, considerably bigger and stronger than he is, leading to the development of a fear not only of his father, but, by extension, of horses.

What is a support of Freud in terms of recognition?

• His work led to greater recognition of the subconscious, group behaviour, dangers of guilt.

What is support for Freud in terms of understanding that belief can be harmful?

• Led to an understanding that belief is sometimes harmful (religious neurotics, deviant behaviour, bigotry, wars.)

What is support for Freud in terms of religion meeting human biological needs?

• Religion does meet human biological needs and relives human frustrations.

• Religion provides a reason to submit to authority - it promises reward for suffering and makes society bearable.

What is support for Freud in terms of positive effects from sublimation?

• Positive effects from sublimation can be found in the expression of religious rituals that can enable individuals and society to be more cohesive and productive.

What is support for Freud in terms of Charles Darwin?

• Charles Darwin’s findings showed that in primitive societies, the social unit was the ‘primal horde’.

• Single dominant males had total authority over the group.

• This shows that the Oedipus Complex is not simply a personal trauma, but one that has affected all societies at a historical level.

What is support for Freud in terms of OCD?

• Freud had case studies to support OCD such as Wolf Man.

What is a key quote from Michael Palmer about Freud being discredited?

• There are only few today, who accept Freud’s theory wholesale.

• Michael Palmer argues, in Fred and Jung on religion, ‘‘almost all the evidence that Freud presents has been discredited in one way or another.’’

What are the following areas in particular that have been attacked?

• The historical and anthropological evidence regarding the primal horde.

• The psychological evidence regarding the Oedipus complex.

• Freud’s dependence on a narrow selection of evidence.

• An unjustifiably negative view of religion.

• Freud’s conclusion that religion should be overthrown.

What is the challenge to Freud in terms of The historical and anthropological evidence regarding the primal horde?

• This has now been discredited.

• The whole theory of the horde was based on Darwin's mere speculations.

• It is no longer accepted that people were grouped exclusively in hordes.

• Instead, it is likely there was much greater variety.

• Not all societies had totem objects that they worshipped, and there is no evidence for the ambivalent attitude towards the totems that was demonstrated by the totem meal;

• E.E. Evans-Pritchard doubts that this ever happened.

• The idea that guilt is handled down from generation to generation has also been discredited.

• This criticism damaged Freud's claim that religion is guilt based, because it removed the major source of guilt.

• The primal crime never happened - and could not transmit guilt even if it had taken place.

• It also weakens the Oedipus complex theory, since the primal crime was an important illustration of its effect on society.

What is the challenge to Freud in terms of The psychological evidence regarding the Oedipus complex?

• The major critic for Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex is  Bronislaw Malinowski, in his book: Sex and Repression.

• Freud needed the complex to be universal for it to be the cause of all religion, and needed it to be caused by our natures for it to precede religion and be the cause of it.

• Malinowski attacked both these points.

 

• First, he pointed to the Trobriand race, where the role of the father is more that of a weak nurse.

• In this race there is no evidence of the Complex.

• Their religion, therefore, must have originated elsewhere.

 

• Second, looking at the animal world, he found nothing inherent in the nature of animals that could cause such a complex.

• The role of both father and mother is one of support.

• Malinowski argued that instead, that the Complex is caused by the strict rules of religion - rather than being the cause of them.

 

• This attack on the Oedipus Complex leads to the conclusion that sexual guilt is not in fact the cause of religion.

• As a result, Freud’s attack on religion does not contain the force it was once believed to have.

What is the challenge to Freud in terms of Freud’s dependence on a narrow selection of evidence?

• Freud's theories relied on the importance of the father figure, which is developed by the mind into the male God of Judaism or Christianity.

• They also failed to take into account societies like the Trobriand race, where the father plays an insignificant role in the development of the child.

• Freud can therefore be criticised for constructing a theory to explain the societies and religions with which he was familiar, and ignoring those of others.

• In a similar way, we can criticise the way he generalised the results of his 5 cases, assuming that the Oedipus complex that he detected in these people was in fact at work everywhere.

What is the challenge to Freud in terms of an unjustifiably negative view of religion?

• The British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott for example, has argued that religion is an essential buffer between the mind and external reality.

 

• Ana-Maria Rizzuto argued that religion is no more of an illusion than science.

• Both disciplines require us to interpret data and impose order on the world.

• Freud’s assumption that science has the sole claim to the truth is unacceptable.

• Freud often ignored benefits of religion (stimulating social altruism, maintaining morality, developing human potential, sense of contentment).

What is further evidence against the Oedipus complex?

• It is particularly difficult to claim that a repressed Oedipus Complex is behind religions that are focused on a female deity, or in a matrilineal society (were women have authority).

• Freud is criticised for his male-orientated view of society and religion.

 

• The Oedipus Complex also doesn’t account for polytheistic religions or some eastern religions where there is no ‘God’ figure.

What are further criticisms of Freud - religion as a universal neurosis?

• Research has shown that religious people are less neurotic that others - Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle's book 'The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience' surveys much of this research.

• Religious people are actually less likely to suffer mental illness, to feel depressed or suicidal, or to be psychotic.

 

• If religion is universal, then it cannot be abnormal.

• It makes no sense to say 'most people are abnormal'.

• 'Most' people must define the norm.

 

• Freud is criticised for reducing religion to ritual.

• Religion is about so much more than ritual observance.

• In fact, in most religions, the performance of rituals in the belief that these will protect from damnation is strongly criticised (1 Cor. 13:2)