 What
is the id?
 What
is the ego?
 What
is the superego?
 How
do these three work together?
 Watch
the following video clip on the Id, Ego
and Superego to see a representation of
Freud’s psyche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_KztSDMN
us&feature=related
 Freud’s
Oedipus Complex is very important to
his psychological view of religion
 The
Oedipus Complex is an analogy based on
the Greek tragic play “Oedipus and the King”
 Oedipus
and the King is a Greek tragedy. The
basic story is as follows:





Oedipus is abandoned at birth due to a prophecy
told that he will kill his father and have children
with his mother
As an adult, Oedipus returns unknowingly to his
own country
He kills the king in battle and takes his wife as
his own
He then discovers that he has killed his own
father and married his mother
In his despair he cuts out his own eyes
 Watch
the Lego portrayal of Oedipus and the
King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtboBsgz
McA
 Freud
believed that each small boy wants his
mother for himself and so wants rid of his
father
 However the boy fears his father as he is
bigger and stronger and so he can’t beat him
 We feel we need the protection of our father
 And so the boy joins him by identifying with
him, introjecting his qualities of strength,
wisdom etc.
 Despite
having taken in the father’s qualities
of strength and wisdom etc we still run into
difficulties and frustrations in the world and
want someone stronger and wiser to protect
and reward us
 We
project those same qualities taken from
the father and create God “after our own
image and likeness we now have the
ultimate father-figure
 So
basically Freud is saying that God is a
projected father-figure, based on early
experiences of the real, and who like him is
needed as a source of protection, but who is
also the source of fear and guilt (we feel
guilty because we want the mother to
ourselves and want rid of the father)
 According
to the Oedipus Complex, everyone
has to deal with the problems caused by the
fact that we have complex childhood
relationships with our parents. Religion is a
way of working through these problems in a
socially acceptable manner
 Freud
also relates the Oedipus Complex to
sex, as is so common with Freud
 According
to Freud the sexual drive, or
libido, is the body’s most basic urge and
therefore is the one most capable of causing
psychological problems within the
development of the individual
 The
trauma behind neurotic behaviour
results from problems in the sexual
development of the child

In terms of the Oedipus Complex the sexual
development of the child results in trauma
because the suckling child was used to having
the mother’s sole attention, when the libido is
transferred to the sexual organ there’s an
already present rival in the form of the father

The feelings of jealousy and hatred combine
with the respect and fear previously felt for the
father. So the result is that the father is viewed
with ambivalence

The desire to possess the mother and the
ambivalence towards the father is the Oedipus
Complex
 The
child represses the conflict deep into the
unconscious mind
 The mechanism of repression is only partially
effective
 While the repressed event or desire may
appear to be long forgotten, the mind
continues to struggle to prevent it from reemerging into the conscious
 As a result of the conflict the event is
channelled out in form of neurotic
symptoms. One of these symptoms is religion
which is why Freud called religion the
‘universal obsessional neurosis of mankind
 Do
you think this is a good explanation for
religious belief? Why/why not?
 What
are the strengths of this theory?
 What
are the weaknesses?
We do describe God as a ‘father figure’
We believe we are made in his image - this
could just as easily be the other way round –
formed by us projecting the qualities of the
father onto a God
Freud carried out case studies to inform his
theory
Freud only studied a small sample of people in his
research, usually women from sexually repressed
societies
The Oedipus Complex does not explain women’s
religion. Freud’s works are male orientated and
often excluded women. If he is using this analogy
to explain religious belief it is not clear why
women as well as
men are religious
It is too far-fetched and
inaccurate when applied to
all of society
What about religious
believers who do not grow
up with a father figure?