RELS 1210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Transtheism, Social Science, Totem
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
May 23, 2018
Spencer and gillen.net
Freud and Durkheim failed to make sense of the totals
Every tribe had a totem animal
oTotem: naturally occurring object, plant, mineral, both the animal of the tribe and a
spiritual protector
oName of its tribe and its
oTaboo against eating the totem animal
Example: If the name of your tribe is kangaroo, you can never eat a kangaroo
oBoth Freud and Durkheim
This was quickly recognized as a seminal piece of work and was, as is well known, used the basis
for further anthropological theorising by amongst others, James Frazer and Emilie Durkheim.
Didn't make any attempt to explain it
oGo back to Tylors frame of religion, was either going to be animism or magic
These folks practice animism and magic-both.
The religion among these people must represent a living relic, a survival of the earliest form of
behaviour among human beings.
End point was going to be atheism
Before he gave up on God altogether there was monotheism
Before polytiesm
Before that, Animism
Before that, Practice of magic
To make sense of hindu tradition; there was polyiteism and
Term to describe amongst buddhist: transiesm
Less evolved forms than the primitive forms
Both Durkheim and Freud, to control forces of physical world; something called totemism
Freud and Durkheim argued that the worship of the totem is the earliest form of religious life
Freud : Psychologist
Got to have its origins in psychology, routed in the brain or in human behaviours...talks about
unconscious mind
Neurosis
Durkheim
Sociologist
Talks about the collective consciousness
oSomething everybody ties into
oSocial behaviours
oControl
Sigmund Freud:
Religion and Neurosis
-Studied medicine in Vienna
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Practiced in Vienna hospitals after 1881
Worked with hysterical patients in Vienna and later in Paris
Entered private practice 1886
Changed from neurology to psychotherapy
Wanted to find laws that were as universal and applicable
Saw himself on a par with Copernicus and Darwin:
Copernicus had freed humanity from it position as the centre of the universe;
Darwin had freed humanity from distinguishing itself from other forms of life
Freud saw his work as freeing humanity from its mental life
oThe result of the unconscious; things not chosen
Between 1887 and 1902 the distinctive elements of "Freudianism" began to emerge:
The role of the Unconscious
oRepression
oChildhood years and forgotten memories
Dreams as wish-fulfilments
Interpretation through psychoanalysis
Centrality of the Oedipus myth
Analyses of the Psyche
Leads to an understanding of human behaviours on all levels
The importance of the formative years
In the Unconscious; true ground of human life, nothing is forgotten nothing has really past
Nothing ever ends in the Unconscious
The unconscious and its resulting psychopathologies are the result of childhood memories, antisocial
longings, and traumatic events, all long repressed
He called the child's sexual envy for one parent and murderous thoughts towards the other the
Oedipus Complex
3 PART CONSCIOUSNESS
ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
BOTH INDIVIDUALS AND ENTIRE NATIONS GO THROUGH STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
-ORAL
-ANAL
-PHALLIC
-LATENCY
Religion for Freud is make believe, merely projections: God, Heaven, Etc.
Religion rests on a defective attitude of "what if" )"ald-ob" in which people seek comfort in a
comfortless universe
In other words, Religion is all make-believe; God and heaven are mere human projections
Freud and Projection
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Freud and durkheim failed to make sense of the totals. Every tribe had a totem animal o. Totem: naturally occurring object, plant, mineral, both the animal of the tribe and a spiritual protector: name of its tribe and its o o. Example: if the name of your tribe is kangaroo, you can never eat a kangaroo. This was quickly recognized as a seminal piece of work and was, as is well known, used the basis for further anthropological theorising by amongst others, james frazer and emilie durkheim. Didn"t make any attempt to explain it: go back to tylors frame of religion, was either going to be animism or magic. The religion among these people must represent a living relic, a survival of the earliest form of behaviour among human beings. End point was going to be atheism. Before he gave up on god altogether there was monotheism. To make sense of hindu tradition; there was polyiteism and.
