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 [[Freud]] renounced the [[Jewish]] [[religion]] of his [[parents (]] -- though not his [[Jewish]] [[identity]]) -- and considered himself an [[atheist]].  [[Freud]] regarded [[monotheistic]] forms of [[religion]] as the [[sign ]] of a highly developed [[state ]] of [[civilization]].  [[Freud]] [[thought ]] that all [[religions]] were barriers to [[cultural]] [[progress]], and thus argued that they should be abandoned iin 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>Freud{{F}} ''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]''. 1903s1930. [[SE ]] XXI. p.81</ref>  [[Freud]] saw the [[idea ]] of [[God]] as an expression of an [[infantile]] longing for a protective [[father]].<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud 1927b|The Future of an Illusion]]''. 1927. [[SE]] XXI, 3.</ref>  [[Freud]] described [[religion]] as a "[[universal ]] [[obsessional ]] [[neurosis]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Obsessiove Actions and Religious Practices]]. " 1907. b[[SE]] IX, 116.</ref>

[[Jacques Lacan]] also considers imself an [[atheist]], having renounced the [[Catholic]] [[religion]] of his parents. Like [[Freud]] he opposes [[religion]] to [[science]], and aligns [[psychoanalysis]] with the latter.<ref>{{S11}} p.265</ref>==Examples==[[Lacan]] states that the true formula of 's [[atheismdiscourse]] is not ''God is dead'' but ''God is unconscious''.<ref>{{S11}} p.59</ref>   abounds in [[Lacanmetaphor]]'s discourse abounds in metaphors drawn from [[Christian]] [[theology]].  The most obvious example is surely the phrase the [[Name-of-the-Father]], which [[Lacan]] adopts to denote a fundamental [[signifier]] whose [[foreclosure]] leads to [[psychosis]].  The changes wrought by the [[symbolic]] are described in creationist rather than evolutionary [[terms]].  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]] [[mystic]]s mystics such as [[St Teresa of Avila]].<ref>{{S20}} p.70-1</ref>  [[Religion]] is a body of beliefs and practices shared by a given social group and connecting it to a higher agency, generally a divinity or divine human.  However, the origin of the term has, for more than two thousand years, been the object of an intense debate that is of interest to psychoanalysis.  [[Religion]] would, therefore, involve a twofold connection—among humankind and between humankind and God.  In this case [[religion]] is said to be a gathering together, an interiority, some scruple that prevents or delays action and entails the performance of certain rites.  The topic of [[religion]] was initially examined by Freud and Breuer in the Studies on Hysteria (1895d), where hysteria could be considered a reaction to mental suffering associated with religious doubt.  Freud's first detailed examination of religion, "Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices," appeared in 1907.  The first book in which he discussed religious themes was Totem and Taboo (1912-1913a). Freud saw religion in its collective and individual forms.  On the one hand he viewed the church as the prototype of an artificial crowd (as the army), where each individual must love his leader (Christ, for example) as a father and other men as his brothers.  Religion helped maintain the cohesion of a human group threatened with disintegration if there was a loss of faith (1921c).  On the other hand, he also saw religion, with its ceremonies and detailed rites, as a universal neurosis, where scruples were transformed into obsessive acts.  Religion would contribute to humankind's transition from a natural state to a cultured one through the sacrifice of human drives.  But the progress of civilization also implied a return to the irrational and the maintenance of illusions that maintained the individual within the confines of his infantile neuroses (1927c). The Freudian approach to religion has more to do with anthropology than with theology: Religion is a part of civilization and the discussion of its dogmas is less important than its hold on society and the individual.  Thus the character of Moses leading the people of Israel through the desert and out of Egypt in Exodus, a figure magnified by Freud, seems in the early twenty-first century to have more to do with myth than with history.

* [[Belief]]{{See}}* [[The Future of an Illusion]]* [[Ideology]]* [[Illusion]]* [[Judaism]]* [[Carl Gustav Jung]]* [[Jacques Lacan]]* [[Moses and Monotheism]]* [[Mysticism]]* [[Oceanic feeling]]* [[Ritual]] Future of an Illusion, The; Ideology; Illusion; Judaism and psychoanalysis; Jung, Carl Gustav; Lacan, Jacques-MarieÉmile; Moses and Monotheism; Mysticism; Oceanic feeling; Philippson Bible; Rite and ritual; {{Also}}