An infidel Jew? On the religiosity of Sigmund Freud

摘要

As far as is known the religious development of the young Freud was complicated and confusing and interspersed by several early experiences of separation. Initially, he was influenced towards Catholicism by his governess but his father attempted to convert him to Judaism. The adolescent Freud was completely full of doubts about his religiosity and sought verification and evidence for his belief in God, which he never found. Because doubts and belief seemed to him to be incompatible, he turned to empirical science with the hope of a clear orientation; however, he was not in a position to reflect on or resolve his conflict between religious belief and scientific thinking. Freud always emphasized his atheism but could not separate himself from his religious socialization. It is discussed whether Freud sought a compromise solution with his concept of the unconscious, in that he transferred the conflict between his confusing experiences with belief and his doubts from the (absolute) transcendental field to a (relative) transcendental field in the sciences.