Introduction Psychoanalysis and Mysticisrn

Ernest Jones noted that religion, after sexuality, was the most discussed topic in Freud's work. Freud's definitive, pejorative view of religion, presented in The Future of an Illusion, defined religion as the final form taken by Christian civilization and sought to undermine religious tenets by interpreting them through childhood development and concepts like projection, repression, and the unconscious. This analysis sparked a long debate among psychoanalysts and between psychoanalysis and religious studies about religion's nature and function. However, the literature lacks sustained interdisciplinary dialogue on the origin and development of the relation between psychoanalysis and mysticism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In his landmark biography of Freud, Ernest Jones observed that no single topic in the Freudian corpus, excepting that of sexuality, had evoked more interest than that of religion. Although Freud’s views on religion are complex, Jones had in mind the definitive and pejorative conception of religion delineated in The Future of an Illusion. There Freud, defining religion in terms of “the final form” taken by our present-clay “Christian civilization,” sought to undermine religious tenets by interpreting them with respect to childhood development and metapsychological concepts like projection, repression, and the unconscious. His trenchant analysis led to a long and fruitful debate among subsequent psychoanalysts, as well as between psychoanalysis and multiple disciplines within religious studies, concerning the nature and function of religion. The history of this ongoing conversation need not be repeated here, as it is substantial and has been well documented. What is noteworthy about this literature, however, is the dearth of any sustained interdisciplinary dialogue with respect to one of its central themes, the origin and development of the relation between psycho analysis and mysticism.