Understanding Freud's Philosophy of Religion

For someone fond of describing himself as "a godless Jew," "a wicked pagan," and "totally non-religious" (Meng and Freud 1963, pp. 63, 17, 11), Sigmund Freud devoted a remarkable amount of time and energy to the study of religion and religious belief. From his first printed comments on religious practice, concerning the cathartic effect of the confession of one's sins (1893, p. 8), to his last attempt, at the age of 83, to come to understand from where religious "belief obtained its immense power which overwhelms 'reason and science'" (1939, p. 123), Freud explored the interplay of religious life and psychological life with more insight than perhaps any thinker before or since. Yet …