In Prefatory Notes Freud speculates about the political systems of USSR, Italy, and German and concludes that abandoning of the religion, as it is in the Soviet Union, can lead to more freedom, including sexual one but this can be harmful to people because it leads to barbarism. On the other hand, Catholic Church in Italy does its best to protect culture along with other moral issues though it is the enemy of freedom of thought. Then the author speculates about contradictions between the Church and psychoanalysis that cannot exist together in peace. (Freud 89-92)
Section I. 1 Historical Premisses. Freud interprets the beginning of monotheistic religion in Egypt that started in the reign of Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton) who developed the cult of Aton, one god for everyone. After the death of the Pharaoh, this religion was abandoned in Egypt. According to Freud, Moses was a close person to Amenhotep. The Egyptian name of Moses was Thothmes that probably ended –mose. He was very upset because of the religion decline and chose the group of strangers in order to continue that monotheistic religion and realize his ideas through them. (Freud 96-98) The people were taken out from Egypt and given a set of rules and laws by Moses. There are two facts that distinguish those events. The first (by E. Sellin) is that the Jews, and Bible confirms it, were stubborn and unruly to their leader, killed him and abandoned the religion. The second fact (by E. Meyer) is that the Jews united with some tribes in the country near Palestine, the Sinai peninsular, and Arabia and under their influence started worshipping the volcano God Jahve in the fertile place called Qades. (Freud 96-99) In the end, Freud concludes that derivation of Christianity from Egyptian religion is not only the opinion but the result of the research work. This research proves that eventually Jahve lost his character and became similar to Egyptian Aton. The religion started in Egypt in a happy time. After the decline, the Jewish people had some severe trials and their God became hard. Nevertheless, the Jews felt as chosen people because they were led out from Egypt by God and He promised them a special reward in the end. (Freud 102-103)
2. Latency Period and Tradition. In this part, Freud speculates about ethical demands in the name of God and rejection of magical ceremonies, which are typical for Mosaic doctrines. The two groups of Jewish people were united in order to accept the new religion. The former “Egyptians” remembered Moses and his religion but had some reasons to forget the past. The others wanted to honor the new god and deny their foreignness. Both sides rejected that there was the other religion before. This compromise was codified in writings. Everything that was removed from the writings was preserved in the form of traditions. The remarkable fact is that some of the traditions became more and more powerful and managed to influence people’s lives throughout the history. The Jews abandoned the Aton religion of Moses and started worshipping another god but the previous religion did not disappear completely. It transformed into a new one with some traditions of the Aton religion. Thus, the God Jahve transformed into Mosaic God. (Freud 107-116)
3. The Analogy. In this part, Freud describes in details the development of neuroses. The neurosis begins with the early trauma in one’s childhood. Then the period of defense starts when a person does not remember unpleasant or terrifying moments experienced in the past. The period of latency means the period of hidden neuroses that cannot be seen. The last stage is the outbreak of the neuroses. (Freud 116-129)
4. Application. Freud claims that the history of the humankind happened similar to the events in the life of the individual. According to the author, the mankind passed through conflicts of a sexual aggression that left its traces in its history. Then the period of latency comes and after the conflict starts again and creates something that is very similar to neurotic symptoms. (Freud 129) Freud claims that the phenomena of religion is similar to neurotic symptoms. He gives some examples from his earlier book Totem and Taboo and starts from the prehistoric times and relations within a family or a clan where father played the major part and in order to hold his position he killed, cripple or banished his sons. Then the author describes sons’ attitude to their father that was even more violent, including such unpleasant thing as cannibalism. Then a stronger of the brothers took the father’s place but the cost of it was the father’s death. (Freud 130-133) Then Freud explains how those historical facts can be tied to religion. Matriarchy followed by the patriarchy, thus, the male gods of polytheism appeared from the mother but obeyed a higher god. Freud tries to prove his opinion giving the example of Christian Communion where a believer symbolically united with God consuming His flesh and blood, and the totem of it is a feast. This cannot be accepted as aggressiveness. The Mosaic religion was a Father religion, Christianity became a Son religion.
5. Difficulties. In the previous part, Freud shows the analogy between the neurotic processes and religious events. But there are two difficulties on the way from individual to into mass psychology that should be investigated. The first is that the researchers concentrated on one religion only and did not examine others. Islam could be added to the research because it has some similarities with the Jewish religion. Freud believes that at first Mohammad wanted to accept it. Mohammedan religion stopped its development on the one great primeval Father who was kinder to His chosen people than Jahve because its leader was not killed by his people. (Freud 148-149) The second difficulty is the tradition and the form in which it existed. Freud asks such questions as who started the tradition? How was this tradition developed? How was it preserved and passed from generation to generation? (Freud 150)
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Moses And Monotheism Translated From The German By Katherine Jones.
