ENGLISH

Christ and Freud: A Study of Religious Experience and Observance

By Arthur Guirdham

Book information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2013
ISBN
0415717108, 9780415717106
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
9 MB (8954119 bytes)
Series
Routledge Library Editions: Freud (Volume 2)
Volume
2
Edition
1
Pages
200\195
Topic
Psychology
Time added
2016-07-20 20:52:02
Fitness & Dieting;Philosophy;Religious Studies;RelPsychoanalysis;Psychology & Counseling;Health

Description

Originally published in 1959, this book is primarily concerned with the question of psychiatric factors in religion, and, conversely, with that of religious factors in psychiatry. It rejects the Freudian theory that religion is a form of obsessional neurosis. Though this latter hypothesis may explain many of the phenomena of religious observance, it cannot explain the reality of religious experience. Dr Guirdham believes that orthodox Christianity is a perversion of the psychologically irrefutable teaching of Christ and that its conception of God as a supreme being endowed with supreme power, its teaching on the resurrection, and its contamination with a sense of guilt, are especially conducive to psychiatric disorder. He shows how theology may actually be inimical to religious experience and how faith differs from belief and is a response of the whole man. The book explains also the psychological origins of clericalism and demonstrates the role played by the latter in stifling religious experience.

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