Question

Sigmund Freud is regarded as the father of psychanalysis. He said in his book “The Future of an Illusion” that he thinks that religion is particularly neurotic in the sense that it results in obsessional restrictions that constrain people to believe that all that the concerns religion is right and that should not get objected. These religious restrictions provide a safeguard to the staunch that the moment they hid to the universal believes, they cannot think of having their ones and thus compels them to continue holding onto the religious believes irrespective of how deceptive they might appear.

So can you explain what he means by saying that religion is particularly neurotic ?

Answer 1

Religion can be understood as a close knit system of belief , practices and devotion . Human beings are social beings who are always on the look to affiliate with people . Humans are also in a constant process to form their identity therefore, following   a particular religion gives one a strong sense of identity and affiliation .

Religion involves a set of practices which are fundamental to it and needs to be practiced so as to be a part of it . These practices gets entrenched in our lives and thereby strengthens are religious beliefs . Religion in simpler terms can also be regarded as a group of people with same sets of beliefs.

A phenomenon in psychology known as group cohesiveness leads religion to a neurotic system . Group Cohesiveness in simpler terms can be said as the cement that binds the members together in a particular group ,

In any religion the extent of group cohesiveness is very high because of which group think is also present . Group think was coined by Irving Janis . Group think is a phenomenon in which group members are concerned with maintaining group consensus overrides the potential to evaluate all potential courses of action as rationally .

Therefore , Sigmund Freud while stating that hat religion is particularly neurotic in the sense that it results in obsessional restrictions that constrain people to believe that all that the concerns religion is right and that should not get objected. These religious restrictions provide a safeguard to the staunch that the moment they hid to the universal believes, they cannot think of having their ones and thus compels them to continue holding onto the religious believes irrespective of how deceptive they might appear is somewhat correct and is due to the strong group cohesiveness which leads to group think and the disregard for other religion.

One of the classic example of religion being particularly neurotic can be seen in the Partition of India in 1947 wherein the country was dived into two parts with one mainly as a Muslim country . The partition led to mass level of killings and communal disharmony among the people.