Moses and Monotheism
Moses and Monotheism was the last book that was ever written by Sigmund Freud. In 1939, the year that Sigmund Freud died in London, the book was published. London was where he took up residency with his family so that they could escape Nazi harassment against Jewish people in Austria; this is the area that Freud felt safe. Sigmund Freud was Jewish, and he opposed anti-Semitism. Freud was refused promotions because of his religion. Freud’s anti- Semitic generation of this time would not pay interest to his ideas. Discrimination was out of control in the late 1920's when Sigmund Freud wrote for a moment on the way that Jews were being treated. He could not understand why, given Jesus was Jewish too. Freud's people had given the human race one of its best gifts, an idol like Jesus Christ. Sigmund Freud thought about this, and began to wonder why Jewish people were so detested. Freud decided to look at the history and origin of his people, and he tried to draw closer to knowing Moses, the heroic Jewish leader who had led his people out of oppression in Egypt.
Sigmund Freud‘s thoughts on these questions is what brought the book Moses and Monotheism to light. Part one of the book is called Moses an Egyptian. “To deny a people the man whom it praises as the greatest of its sons is not a deed to be undertaken lightheartedly-especially by one belonging to that people” (Sigmund Freud, 1939, pg. 3). It was said that Moses was concealed in a basket and put in the Nile river to be saved from the murder of all the Jewish first-born children, and he was saved by an Egyptian princess and raised as her son. However, Moses is an Egyptian name, and Freud wondered about this. He wondered if Moses was really an Egyptian, and me...
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...ed his beliefs from priests who had devoted their lives to the cult of Aton. Freud also responded to definite historical conclusions that placed the origin of the Jewish religion in the cult of Jahve, a volcano god who was overpowered by a different Moses, who was of Midian origin, by assuming the combination of two religions; Aton's religion of truth and justice, which was momentarily withdrawn by the religion of Jahve, which was focused more on conquest. While learning about the history of the Jews, Freud redistributes the dualist system that was so significant to him; the union of two Moses with different origins into one nature, also two new religions (faiths) into one monotheistic religion, and two different people into one nation.
Part three is called Moses, His People, and Monotheistic Religion. This part of the book is the Prefatory Notes written by Freud.
Religion has been a controversial topic among philosophers and in this paper I am focusing
ADLER, Mortimer J. Editor in Chief. Great Books of the Western World. The Major Works of Sigmund Freud. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1996.
Similar to Marx, Freud believes humans simply make up the idea of God in explanation to things science could not disprove. Humans take relationships from our Earthly fathers and compare it to our Heavenly father. According to Freud, “Religion is an attempt to master the sensory world in which we are situated by means of the wishful world which we have developed within us as a result of biological and psychological necessities.” (H/R,p.26) Science can neither prove or disprove religion. Freud chooses to believe science and claims religion is only comforting and hopeful thinking to our purpose after
Sigmund Freud is known as the founding father of psychology. If it wasn’t for Freud and his work psychology probably wouldn’t be around today (Javel, 1999). Although Freud had many followers there were some who didn’t agree with his work and found his work to be very controversial. There were also many who criticized his work, one of his most controversial and criticized work was his psychosexual stages of development and his believes about the famous “Oedipus Complex.” Psychoanalysis is the first known modality used to treat individuals with psychological disorders. Freud’s work was a foundation for many whether they believed in his work or not. From his work other psychologist
To answer the set question I will explore Freud’s Totem and Taboo looking at his theory of the primal horde and Oedipus complex and his theory on religion as an illusion. Also looking at Freud’s theory that religion is unhealthy psychologically. To conclude I will explore his relationship with Jung and the affect his criticism of Freud’s theory had on their professional collaboration.
Erich Fromm in his psychoanalytical approach to religion is distinct from the earlier works of Sigmund Freud. Fromm defines religion as “any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion.” Fromm argues that irreligious systems including all the different kinds of idealism and “private” religions deserve being defined as a “religion.” Based on Fromm’s theory, it is explained that there is no human being who does not have a “religious need,” almost every part of human life reflects religious need and its fulfillment, in fact he states it to be “inherent” in man.
...en civilization and the individual. Living in a nation still recovering from a brutally violent war (Germany), Freud began to criticize organized religion as a collective neurosis, or mental disorder. Freud, a strong proponent of atheism, argued that religion tamed asocial instincts and created a sense of community because of the shared set of beliefs. This undoubtedly helped a civilization. However, at the same time organized religion also exacts an enormous psychological cost to the individual by making him or her perpetually subordinate to the primal figure embodied by God.
In the midst of his already successful career, Sigmund Freud decided to finally dedicate a book of his to religion, referring to the subject as a phenomena faced by the scientific community. This new work, Totem and Taboo, blew society off its feet, ultimately expanding the reaches of debates and intellectual studies. From the beginning, Freud argues that there exists a parallel between the archaic man and the contemporary compulsive. Both these types of people, he argues, exhibit neurotic behavior, and so the parallel between the two is sound. Freud argues that we should be able to determine the cause of religion the same way we determine the cause of neurosis. He believes, since all neuroses stem from childhood experiences, that the origins of this compulsive behavior we call religion should also be attributed to some childhood experiences of the human race, too. Freudian thought has been dominant since he became well known. In Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, religion becomes entirely evident as a major part of the novel, but the role it specifically plays is what we should question. Therefore, I argue that Freud’s approach to an inborn sense of religion and the role it plays exists in The Last of the Mohicans, in that the role religion plays in the wilderness manifests itself in the form of an untouchable truth, an innate sense of being, and most importantly, something that cannot and should not be tampered with.
He took a toll of countless operations over a span of sixteen years, and unfortunately passed on in 1938 after emigrating to London (2). Despite this tragedy, Freud’s work remains in place today. Coming from a Jewish background, there is no doubt that finding work and fitting in were problems in his life he had to overcome, but he did not let these factors deter him from achieving success. Freud stands today as a role model for everyone willing to bring about new ideas that might not sit well in today’s society but need to be addressed. During his time, his ideas and theories about the mind were critically rejected but Freud did not just give up. He kept producing new theories and new ways to understand how the mind works and behaves, despite the criticism he got. Sigmund Freud’s life shows that by taking that leap to express one’s own ideas, it can reap great success and eventually inspiring
Moses was a Hebrew who was raised with Egyptian upbringing and education. As he grew he either knew that he was an Israelite or simply sympathized with Israelites in bondage. We know this by the action he took when he saw an Egyptian guard beating on a Hebrew slave. Moses interfered, killed the guard, and buried him. So Moses fled Egypt to Mount Sinai out of fear. This is the location in which God revealed his personal name to Moses and called upon him to lead his people out of the land of Egypt.
Goodwin, A. (1998). Freud and Erikson: Their Contributions to the Psychology of God-Image Formation. Pastoral Psychology, 47(2), 97-117. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the opinion that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged along a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it; regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logics of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Moravia, which was then part of the Austrian Empire and is now in the Czech Republic. He spent most of his life in Vienna, from where he fled, in 1937, when the Nazis invaded. Neither Freud (being Jewish) or his theories were very popular with the Nazis and he escaped to London where he died in 1939.
According to the book of Exodus in the Bible, Israel's future leader, Moses, was born at a very risky time. It was a time when the Jews in Egypt had increased in number and prospered so much that the Egyptian pharaoh decreed that every male Jew who was born at that time was to be killed. Moses was born a Jew. However, when his mother realized that, the time came for him to be born; she decided not to let him be killed and was eager to hide him. It was not possible though to keep him with her, for she would be found. Consequently, she decided to hide him among the reeds in the River Nile (Exodus 1-2 and QB VI...
... will of others and in harmony with the spirit prevailing in the worlds of others (The Core of the Matter: 54). Gordon argues that the Jewish people’s natural growth and self-realization has been hampered by alien and extraneous influences (Some Observations: 377). As the Jews has been pushed away from the primary creative processes, and forced to live under constant pressure and influence of foreign cultures, they have eventually lost the distinctive, external signs of identity, social structure, language and lifestyle, and become dependent on others materially and spiritually, leading them to have an inanimate existence, lacking in national creativity (Our Tasks Ahead: 381). This life has made the Jews passive and submissive; they no longer act upon or influence others, but are merely acted upon and influenced by others (The Work of Revival in the Diaspora: 78).