The Neurosis of Humanity
“Religion would thus be the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity”
This metaphor is basically the central controlling metaphor of the entire text. Freud approached the question of why mankind has exhibited a universal need to create religion from a psychoanalytical approach much as he would an individual patient. His conclusion is that religion should be characterized as a psychological disorder; a neurotic obsession.
An Impartial Instrument?
“In point of fact psychoanalysis is a method of research, an impartial instrument, like the infinitesimal calculus, as it were.”
Freud perhaps did not mean this to be metaphorical, but time has a way of changing interpretations. His implication that psychoanalysis is as objective an instrument of research calculus has long since debunked and is now merely an occasion for derisive laughter. Even at the time that he wrote these words, however, it would have been all impossible not to mistake the central assumption here as significantly less than literal: by Freud’s own definition, psychoanalytic treatment of patient is not impartial because every doctor brings a bias to the process even if only unconsciously.
The Primal Father
“the primal father was the original image of God”
Freud contends that one of the unconscious drives creating religion is the urge to invent a heaven father-figure capable of protecting man from his neurotic anxieties produced by everyday survival. He goes on to immediately clarify this metaphor by explaining that the “primal father” is prototypical model that served to shape the image of God as religions around the world formed in response to example of collective wish-fulfillment for a cosmic protective entity which would often later transform into a creator deity.
The Yoke of Religion
“an appallingly large number of people are dissatisfied with civilization and unhappy in it, and feel it as a yoke which must be shaken off”
In response to the question of why religion would be a negative force on society if it is merely an illusion, Freud responds with a simile directed toward the utilitarian effect such an illusion has managed to produce and propagate on mankind for millennia. Religious instruction is mandated on the central proposition that it will make people happier than the alternative of not believing in the illusion of the all-powerful heavenly father-figure acting as protector and seat of all knowledge. And yet, as Freud points out, the end result of all these different individual religions has been that the overwhelming bulk of humanity is anything but happy. Therefore, why maintain the illusion at all?
Bittersweet Poison
“the sweet — or bitter-sweet — poison”
The metaphorical poison here is religion. Or, more precisely, the reception of instruction of religious belief with zealous affirmation of the illusion as truth starting from an age too early to question otherwise. It is those who have instilled this sweet poison that Freud suggests would experience the most trouble accepting a reality absent the consolation that the illusion of religion is capable of providing.
