Psychoanalysis and Religion: From Freud to Lacan 3800-PRFL26-S-OG
The goal of the seminar will be to analyze the most important texts of the psychoanalytic tradition, which are devoted to the religious phenomena. It is commonly assumed that psychoanalysis belongs to the group of the reductive hermeneutics which treat faith and religious beliefs with sceptical suspicion, by attempting to bring them down to more empirically tangible facts - like, for instance, the infantile wish of parental care, projected on God the Father. Indeed. Freud’s classical arguments, formulated in Future of an Illusion, take the reductive turn of demascation, yet not the whole psychoanalytic discourse on religion falls under this rule. From the very beginning, Freud’s reductive ideas are met with a fierce internal polemics, and not only the one coming from C. G. Jung. Many of Freud’s pupils and successors oppose Freud’s “infantilising” approach and emphasize the role of religious affects in the process of psychic-spiritual maturation. Here the most important opponent is Jean Laplanche as the pioneer of a new domain called ‘psychotheology.’ By following his intuition, I will try to show that psychotheology not only does not reduce religiosity to infantile needs, but fosters our understanding of those psychic attitudes and affects that are based upon faith.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Participants are expected to acquire: (1) a basic orientation in the psychoanalytic theories, particularly those concerning the subject of religion; (2) a knowledge of arguments used in favour and against the religious faith.
Knowledge: The participant
- knows and understands at an advanced level, functional revision of paradigms - global achievements, theoretical foundations and general issues and general issues detailed – appropriate for scientific or artistic disciplines;
- knows and understands the main scientific or artistic trends in which they occur.
Skills: The participant
- knows and understands the fundamental dilemmas of contemporary civilization;
- can perform critical analysis and evaluation of the results of scientific research and activities, expert and other creative work and their contribution to the development of knowledge.
Social Competences: The participant
- can communicate on specialist topics to the extent that allows active participation in the international scientific community;
- can disseminate the results of scientific activities, also in popular forms;
- can initiate a debate;
- can participate in scientific discourse;
- can use a foreign language at level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference Language Education the extent enabling participation in international scientific and professional environment;
- is prepared critically to assess the achievements within a given scientific or artistic discipline;
- is prepared critically to assess one’s own contribution to the development of a given scientific or artistic discipline;
- is prepared to recognize the importance of knowledge in solving cognitive and practical problems.
Assessment criteria
Active participation during classes (50%) plus one essay (50%).