New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis Lesson Plan

Discuss Freud's diagnosis of religion as a reaction to helplessness, in which the individual harkens back to the "mnemic image of the father whom in his childhood he so greatly overvalued" (202).

Freud essentially says that religion is man's way to deal with his unresolved fears of the world and that the narrative of a benevolent Heavenly Father is born out of childhood memories of the father, whom children look to for security, comfort, and provision. For Freud, the entire enterprise of religion is a transference of childhood trauma by the id, and the development of religious institutions simply taking advantage of a mass-transference.

Explain why Freud believes...