Sigmund Freud talks about the trauma of been self conscious?

Question

Religion was born to curb human hysteria , and this is what Freud tells us.
what are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Didn't Freud see religion as something practical, a way of dealing with certain psychological problems, but also creating others? Religious hysteria! It caused as many problems as it cured.

Answer 2

Freud did talk about religion being the curb to human hysteria, but not in the way you make it sound. He believed that religion prevented hysteria, by absorbing and even masking the shock of reality. It was an escape to another world, where you were protected. Life needn't affect you in religion, for you are like a helpless child, and religion was the stand in for the protective father. He believed that men hid there weakness within religion, and because of this, could never mature out of the "other world", without leaving religion. He looked down on religion as an angry, hiding, vengeful, and unstrustworthy way of deal with hysteria, but an effective one none the less.

In this he was correct. If your deeply devote and you have a gun at your head, you can pray and pray to be saved and never scream or cry, or react until your body is on the ground, hands still clasped. In religion you can comfort yourself when a loved when died by saying "they're in a better place", you can get rid of guilt feelings simply by whispering "dear lord, please forgive me, for I have sinned." It was the universal medication. But like any medication it had many side effects, weakness, irrationality, excuses, narcissism and many more.

Also he called religion a 'universal obsession' that was only explainable or prove-able 'through the wish to overcome human frailty'. And this too seems to be true in many cases. Freud could certainly be right in his assumption, but you have to remember, the text we are taking from was never finished, never concluded, and thus we are left to try and puzzle out Freud's words and meanings ourselves.

Answer 3

Freud needed prozac

Answer 4

Religion was around a LONG time before Freud... Religion was around during our creation (in the garden) so we can't really say it was "born" or "invented" later on for any reason...

Answer 5

Freuds theories, when inverted, apply to himself. Books have been written about this, especially his views on religion.

Answer 6

You are Psycho # 1

Answer 7

Allah is not God.