Research Catalog

Title

God, Freud and religion : the origins of faith, fear and fundamentalism / Dianna T. Kenny.

Author

Kenny, Dianna T.

Publication

London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2015.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 223 pages; 25 cm

Summary

Did God create man or did man create God? In this book, Dianna Kenny examines religious belief through a variety of perspectives - psychoanalytic, cognitive, neuropsychological, sociological, historical and psychiatric - to provide a coherent account of why people might believe in God. She argues that psychoanalytic theory provides a fertile and creative approach to the study of religion that attempts to integrate religious belief with our innate human nature and developmental histories that have unfolded in the context of our socialization and cultural experiences. Freud argued that religion is so compelling because it solves the problems of our existence. It explains the origin of the universe, offers solace and protection from evil, and provides a blueprint about how we should live our lives, with just rewards for the righteous and due punishments for sinners and transgressors. Science, on the other hand, offers no such explanations about the universe or the meaning of our lives and no comfort for the unanswered longings of the human race. Is religion a form of wish-fulfilment, a collective delusion to which we cling as we try to fathom our place and purpose in the drama of cosmology? Can there be morality without faith? Are science and religion radically incompatible? What are the roots of fundamentalism and terror theology? These are some of the questions addressed in God, Freud and Religion, a book that will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists and psychotherapists, students of psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy and theology and all those with an interest in religion and human behaviour.

Subject

• Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939
• Psychology and religion
• Violence > Religious aspects
• Psychoanalysis
• Freudian Theory
• Religion and Psychology
• Psychoanalysis > history
• Violence > psychology
• Fear > psychology
• Religion
• Psychoanalyse
• Religionspsykologi
• Våld > Religiösa aspekter
• Psykoanalys

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-215) and index.

Contents

Science, God and religion ; Introduction ; Freud, science and religion ; Aims -- Does God exist? : The affirmative argument ; The negative argument ; Science and religion ; Religion and cognition -- The common origins in human nature of taboos, conscience, neurosis and religion : The origin and meaning of totems and religion ; Taboos: Totem and taboo (1913) ; Freud and Durkheim on religion -- Freud, religion, culture and philosophy : Exposition: The future of an illusion (1927) ; Civilization and its discontents (1930) ; Moses and monotheism (1939): Freud's final religious and philosophical contemplations -- Freud, the demonic, madness, and the fanciful : Historical context embeddedness of demonic phenomena and madness ; A demonological illness: the case of Christoph Haizmann ; Psychoanalytic explanations for demonological and other 'religious' phenomena in psychotic illnesses ; The psychodynamics of myth, legend and fairytale ; The formative personal contexts of religious and philosophical thought -- Critiques of Freud's theory on religion : Religion as a social construction and a wish-fulfilling illusion ; Contemporary psychoanalysis and religion -- Group psychology and the psychoanalysis of violence : The power of the collective: social psychology and group behaviour ; Group processes ; The psychoanalysis of violence -- Terror theology and fundamentalism : Facts and figures on the world's religions ; In the name of God: Christian fundamentalism ; The birth of Islam: the Prophet Muhammad ; In the name of Allah: Islamic fundamentalism ; Conclusions and a cautionary tale.

Call Number

JFE 17-365

ISBN

• 9781138791329
• 1138791326
• 9781138791336
• 1138791334

LCCN

• 2014039671
• 40024773906

OCLC

892892488

Author

Kenny, Dianna T.

Title

God, Freud and religion : the origins of faith, fear and fundamentalism / Dianna T. Kenny.

Publisher

London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2015.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-215) and index.

Local Note

AUTH: U. OF SYDNEY. EXAMINES RELIG. BELIEF USING PSYCHOANALYTIC & OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.

Other Standard Identifier

40024773906

Research Call Number

JFE 17-365