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{{Top}}religious|religion{{Bottom}}

[[Freud]] renounced the [[Jewish]] [[religion]] of his parents -- though not his [[Jewish]] [[identity]] -- and considered himself an [[atheist]].

[[Freud]] thought that all [[religions]] were barriers to [[cultural]] [[progress]], and thus argued that they should be abandoned in favor of [[science]].

[[Freud]] argued that [[religion]]s were an attempt to protect oneself against [[suffering]] by "a delusional remoulding of reality," and thus concluded that they "must be classed among the mass-delusions" of humankind.<ref>{{F}} ''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]''. 1930. [[SE]] XXI. p. 81</ref>

[[Freud]] described [[religion]] as a "universal obsessional neurosis."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Obsessiove Actions and Religious Practices]]." 1907. [[SE]] IX, 116.</ref>

[[Jacques Lacan]] also considers himself an [[atheist]], having renounced the [[Catholic]] [[religion]] of his parents.

[[Lacan]] states that the true formula of [[atheism]] is not ''God is dead'' but ''God is unconscious''.<ref>{{S11}} p. 59</ref>

[[Lacan]]'s discourse abounds in [[metaphor]]s drawn from [[Christian]] [[theology]].

In the seminar of 1972-3, [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[religion|God]]" as a [[metaphor]] for the [[Other|big Other]], and compares [[woman|feminine]] ''[[jouissance]]'' to the ecstacy experienced by Christian mystics such as St Teresa of Avila.<ref>{{S20}} p.70-1</ref>

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