Freud, Jung, Obama, Romney, Religion & the 2012 election

October 20, 2012 / Posted in  Christian Terrorists, Church history, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Homosexuality, Koch Brothers, Papacy, Poverty, Republican Party, Roman Catholicism, Tea Party

Sigmund Schlomo Freud (an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis; born 6 May 1856 in a rented room at a blacksmith’s house at Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia  (now part of the Czech Republic) to an extremely poor family – died 23 September 1939 in London, England at the age of 83) saw religion as an illusion. Freud used the word illusion (Täuschung is more precisely translated as “deception” indicating that religion was mortal-defined and not divine), claiming “[when the] mask is fallen: it leads to denial of God and of an ethical ideal” (Freud, Sigmund (1949). The Future of an Illusion. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Company, p. 64; a German edition was published in London by Hogarth Press in cooperation with the London Institute of Psycho-analysis; it is in vol. 21 (1927-1931) of Freud’s Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud with Future of an Illusion being authored in 1927).  This quote, so often used, is not reflective of Freud’s opinion or his psychoanalysis.

In the original text, Freud argues that ethics are inherent and are not dependent on a deity, but on the quality of goodness a person learns in life. Freud’s full sentence, taking from the original text, reads: “The mask is fallen; it leads to the denial of God and of an ethical ideal, as indeed we have always supposed. To keep us from the discovery, we have been made to believe that psycho-analysis neither has, nor can have, a philosophical standpoint. [emphasis mine, to show what anti-Freudian thinkers delete deliberated to degrade what was written and meant]”. 

A linguist and philologist as well as medical doctor and philosopher, Sigmund Freud was proficient in German, French, Italian, Spanish, English (he read Shakespeare throughout his life), Hebrew, Latin and Greek.  Not once, in any of his writings did the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis deny an ethical ideal as motivating people.  While Freud had little time for the sophistry of organized religion and what he termed the fiction (or imagination) of a god or supernatural creator he was convinced of the immortality of ideas giving birth to natural ethics.

Ethics, Freud argued, were learned and not the result of divine intercession or a code based on tablets, scrolls or other religious writing that were mandated

by some elusive, exclusive and exclusionary being. For that reason Freud has been libeled as “the godless Jew”–a phrase that did not cause the doctor any discomforture (he fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 at the age of 82)–he found it only half-true, as in his own writing he saw himself as “a completely Godless Jew“: one who was secular and related to his historical past, but did not recognize a divine being, as in the Torah what is mistranslated as “god” really is a multiple of deities: elohim (אֱלֹהִ֔ים).  Its singularity or plurality is determined by the verb.

Freud always saw himself as a secular Jew–one who believed in the conduct of inquiry, one who read omniverously, a man who found nothing unapproachable, as he wrote in his Autobiographical Study (Robert, Marthe (1976). From Oedipus to Moses: Freud’s Jewish Identity. New York, NY: Anchor, pp. 3-6) but it was the opposite for the Nazi Youth who found objections to books, especially those on sex, that their priests, pastors, bishops both Evangelical (Lutheran) and Roman Catholic shunned, forbade people to read, and sent the Nazi Youth (including Josef Ratzinger) to burn in public fires after storming libraries, clinics and other repositories. 

For Freud, religion was to be an ethic–not a rule or law.

Freud saw religion as a repetition of the experience of a child.  Religion was but a toy that is too comforting to be given up even as an adult as it salves pain, worry, and sense of wrongful interactions. Compare this with 1 Corinthians 13:11: ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου compared with the 1550 translation: ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος ὡς νήπιος ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος· ἐλογιζόμην ὅτε δέ γέγονα ἀνήρ κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου, where the writers of the First Letter to Corinth predate Freud even though the text is transmogrified by copyists in the pay of Constantine I at his Council of Nicaea with additional damage done in medieval scriptorium.   For Freud, this mean blind obedience to authority, a subservience that Socrates rejected and died for to prove the  necessity to question all things including the gods and religion (Plato, Apology 24-27; the official charge was insulting the gods [by questioning their existence]).

Religion, in short, Freud wrote was but a symbol of mortal fear of insecurity.  Religion was equivalent to the mask of misery and apprehension that crystalized in the caricature of Linus’ blanket.  Religion was never considered by Freud to be a permanent entity that would be there to comfort the child growing into manhood and ultimately old age–even though it had survived for more than ten thousand years.  Its survival, Freud contested, was the result of mortals unwilling to think for themselves and surrendering their personal freedom and choice to those they were told or taught to be higher in skills, knowledge, and closeness to the totem of definitions of godhood: the gods of water, earth, fire, air, fecundity (especially the deity of masturbation that Freud termed the most lasting addiction to mortals), and so forth.

The singular greatest tragedy of religion is it is a face for collective neurosis, caused in the same way that childhood neurosis is formed: being told what to do, believe, how to behave and so forth. The goal of religion, in this regard, Freud argued passionately is not only surrendering individual and collective free will but also individuality and the uniqueness that it brings, the right to think, act and express one’s true personality, and the developmental system of the mind to raise above mythology: it rejects self-actualization that will not be defined until the writing of Abraham Maslow, (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) an American psychologist.

The illusion or deception of religion is not based on individual wishes, Freud facilitated in his speeches, letters and articles, but the fantasies and dreams of those who seek power over another by pretending to have a supernatural or spiritual authority that is greater than that of the individual. The most absurd of these is the concept of infallibility that actually raises a mere mortal to divine status in keeping with the initial holy trinity of ancient Egypt.

The ancient Egyptian Trinity included Osiris, Isis, and Horus whose priests had headresses similar to beehives and titles equaling Father.   This Trinity was, as pointed in various writings, no different from the Trinity worshipped by the ancient Serbians or

Hindus, and is found in every culture that has existed and left records with the “holy group” equated with fertility rituals and “creation” as well as irresponsible actions causing pain and suffering for nonadherents and nonbelievers with similar mythologies of Great Flood, death and judgment, heaven and hell, demons and angels, devils and protectors, and other tales of terror, warfare, final days and warfare (Armageddon) that were used like horror stories to fighten children and their parents to keep people from questioning their leaders and officiants at sacrificial rites and riturals so that none would be able to reach his or her full potential, expose the deception and aid civilization to move out of the darkness of mythology into the light of learning. 

The earliest bibles were written by Eusebius in 331 CE (Eusebius, Vita Constantini, IV, 36, 37; this led to the composition (although there is the argument of how many columns made up each text) of the Codex Vaticanus and the younger Codex Sianiaticus: both originals exist only in fragments, fragments that were later copied and redacted). 

The same is true concerning the holy books written by the followers of Muhammad who claim that the Qur’an was written by Remembrancers who were commission by Muhammad who had been ordered to use such people by the angel Gabriel (the Qu’ran has numerous variations within early scripts. Since the kufic script in which the Qu’ran was originally written contained no indication of vowels or diacritical points, variant readings are recognised by Muslims as of equal authority but there are various scholars who disagree that those that appeared within a generation after the death of Muhammad are authentic (cf. Tisdall, William St. Clair (1912). A Word to the Wise. Being a brief defence of the “Sources of Islám” [against the criticisms of Maulavi Muhammad ‘Alí in “The Divine Origin of the Holy Qur’an” and those of Imám Fakhru’l Islám]. N.p. n.p., 76 p.), but are like the scrolls and other texts determined in a political contest at Nicaea to be political defined by the authorities. 

The same is true with the various generations of Caliphs of Islam one of whom claimed to have the oldest copy of the Qur’an written in 651, only 19 years after Muhammad’s death, but today its custodians refuse to allow any carbon dating or testing as it is rapidly disintegrating (uniquely, the faithful claim that Allah [god] promised to keep the Qur’an from “corruption” but that word means “changes” and not “disintegration”. The text is written in Kufic: the antecedent to Arabic. The word “Qur’an” means “dictation” and is believed by Muslims to be the very dictation and final revelation of Allah (God), as it was with the Emperor of the East who created what he called his “catholic [universal] church”.

The same is true with the invention of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) whose founder (Joseph Smith, Jr.) was a self-proclaimed prophet revealing secrets written on golden plates and by putting his head into a heat to read for seer stones when not dictating from behind a curtain (read here and here).  The golden plates that the angel allegedly gave Smith have never been seen, nor is there any record of anyone seeing the special glasses lent to Smith so that he could read the golden plates on which the faith in Mormon rests. 

Even though  Smith  lacked any ability to read any ancient language and had no formal education in linguistics, translation or interpretation, Smith corrected the Bible authorized by the Emperor Constantine in 331 CE.  Even though Smith attended tent revivals, common in the first half of the nineteenth century, there is no record that Smith could read or write, nor define the differences in word order, word choice, textuality (textual criticism), or the date of invention and introduction of a word into the vernacular or vulgar (common) language; worse yet, Smith did not know that the Bible is by various hands as seen in the differences in poetry incorporated with prose. 

The fact that it is claimed that he translated and corrected the existing Judeo-Christian Bible is troubling, as it would mean that Smith was redacting existing translations: a person translates from an original language, but redacts (refines) from a language that is known and used by putting it into an acceptable and literary format (such as was the fate of the King James Version in 1611, that used Shakespearean English over the more dated pre-seventeenth century English, as the Bible had been translated into the vernacular by many English clergy, including Wycliff, Mary Tudor, etc.). 

Why it is highly unlikely that Smith corrected the Judeo-Christian Bible is because he knew no foreign language and barely understood and used nineteenth century English.  This is seen in his alleged translation of scraps of Papyrus he used (he claimed he received them from an carnival man) to translate (D&C 73:4; 76:15; 90:13; 94:10; 124:89) hieroglyphic text (an art not yet perfected) to create what he declared to be the Testament of Abraham, even though he did not use any Greek, Hebrew texts nor Akkadian cuneiforms. Today’s scholars have the fragments and reject Smith’s translation, noting that the fragments are part of a manual on breathing.  The sources Smith plagiarized to prepare his “translations” are available here.

Facsimile 1 references the various aspects of preparing the soul for its afterlife.  This includes cleansing with special liquids, embalming with herbs and spices, and laying the cadaver out so that it can be properly wrapped by eunuchs charged with protecting the body on its final journey to its ultimate resting place (for higher status people this would be a wooden box).

Facsimile 3 is a graphic representation of the god of creation: Osiris, who married his sister Isis (a practice that was common throughout the known Middle East, and is the foundation for the myth of Abraham marrying his sister Sarah, whom the patriarch would sell to noble kings to enrich his treasury with coins, animals, “maid servants and man servants” as wealth was that which could be controlled: living beings as well as gold and aromas. The text at the bottom defines the judgment is absolute and is that of a god–not of a man: Abraham.

Papyrus 4 is a composite of various illustrations and commentary on the issue of breathing.  It reflects the advancement of medicine in the ancient world that was centered in the capital cities of Egypt and was unknown in what was known as Canaan (Palestine) that included Phoenicia and its tributory states.  There is no mention of the name of Abraham nor of any of his exploits, including the common practice of sacrificing the first born son to the gods to ensure that his wife would be fertile and produce more sons.  The first born son is heatedly debated, with Jews and Christians arguing that it was Isaac since the infant was born of the first wife (Sarah); however, the Muslim faithful assume that the first born was Ishmael, since he was first born even though his mother was the maidservant of Sarah and the concubine of the patriarch. Concubines were still considered part of the harem and thus wealth, and the arrival of a boy baby was hailed with the same gusto as if it had been born of the first wife. The text does not mention Abraham nor any of the myths that surround Abraham including the mission to Sodom or Lot’s incest with his two daughters in the mountain caves outside of the city of Zoar.

Papyrus X is the most damning evidence against Joseph Smith Jr.’s claim to have translated the “long lost” (it is barely mentioned in the Old Testament) tract attributed to be the Book of Abraham.  It is a manual on breathing and has no reference to any divine breath as found in Psalm 150:6.  The word has been transmogrified to mean “dictation” as well as “inspiration” but this is taking extreme liberties with the ancient text.

While the Bible details that people should not hide their faith (1 Timothy 4:12), Joseph Smith Jr. had a difficult time not hiding his as a would-be evangelist at open-air revivals, or later when he claimed to be reading from golden plates or using the seer stones to read secret messages.  Smith always was in hiding when translating the Book of Mormon, usually behind a curtain that is the subject of the fantasy The Wizard of Oz.  To create an illusion or deception that something is special, throughout history the inveigler junque would use the word “divine” or “inspired” or even “holy” to give it a semblance of authenticity as being god-created or god-written–a fantasy from Babylon found in the Book of Daniel 5:5.  It is not found in the Torah. It is not surprising that Romney still claims that the Book of Abraham is original and reflects the fictional patriarch. His knowledge of this book, the Book of Mormon, and the Bible are note even marginal but badly lacking basics.

Freud was not as concerned about the illusion of religion as he was about the dangerof religion and its cannibalistic consuming intellect as well as the body of those who turn to it for succor. Freud’s concern was that religion would mandate and use bad human institutions (such as occurred during the Roman

Catholic Inquisition, the Protestant (especially the burning and hanging of witches both in Europe and the New World), Greek, Bulgarian, Russian and Serbian Orthodox, Roman Catholic Council of Bishops, the Grand Gathering of Ayatollahs (التجمع من آيات الله الكبرى), and so forth) to control mortals.  Religion’s control was always buttressed by the ruse of its necessity to protect “the morals and faith” of the sinner and all others, leaving little for the individual to determine as popes became infallible toward the end of the nineteenth century.

Religious institutions only thrive and accelerate when they prohibit critical thinking.  When this occurs it leads to the impoverishment of intelligence. This is especially true in units set aside for studies, debate, discussion, and research: schools, universities, seminaries, and so forth.  These opportunities disappear when they are controlled by religion regardless of its name or branding. Freud calls this tragedy Denkschwäche: the impoverishment of reason. 

What has been repeatedly proven in psychological tests is that controlled thought impedes the power of reason. When the faculty of reasoning disappears or is denied, the result is the devastating decline of judgment and a further the debasement of self-acceptance.

The idea that ethics and righteous living is a product of religion is absurd, Freud argued. Instead, Freud noted, if mortals reject religion they will still be and remain ethical beings.  Ethics are universal and ethics do not require any divine being’s intervention, authorship or politics and interference of  a god (or a goddess if the actual words were followed, noting verbs to define and distinguish between singular and plural nouns).

Freud carefully, craftly counters the claims of religious groups and institutions, citing their histories as being filled with great cruelty that increased human suffering rather than reducing it, and advancing mortality (death) rather than working for a longer life as seen in the forced conversions of American natives put to the sword with the invasion of Spaniards in Central and South America (Francisco Pizarro destruction of the highly developed Inka civilization in Perú beginning in 1531 and executed Atahualpa, the emperor of the Inkas, on 26 July 1533 after Atahualpa filled a room with gold to pay for his freedom; Juan de Betanzos, Narratives of the Incas ed. Dana Buchanan, tr. Roland Hamilton. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1996), the movement of Christian crusaders against Jews, Greeks, and fellow Christians during the period 1095-1492 (Runciman, Steven (1951-1954). History of the Crusades. Cambridge [Eng.]: University Press; three volumes), and Muslims from the rise of the armies of Muhammad attacking from Arabia to Spain and beyond (Hilliam, Paul (2004). Islamic weapons, warfare, and armies : Muslim military operations against the Crusaders. New York, NY: Rosen Pub. Group; Ibrāhīm Farghalī, Ibrāhīm (1998). المؤرخ السوري أبو شامة، ٥٩٩-٦٦٥ ھ/١٢٠٣-١٢٦٨ م : دراسة في المؤلفات والمنهج / ابراهيم فرغلي. al-Qāhirah : al-ʻArabī).

Without religion or its god(s), the individual has in his or her better interest to ascertain and insure that the individuals (collectively) work for the common good so that all can share in the rewards of ethical behavior. These ethics include brotherly love (for Freud this was Menschenliebe), truth, and freedom. Once mortals renounce the concept of the existence of a god, they longer turn to a heavenly Father, but see the earthly father and fatherhood (protective, caring, generous, sharing, and so forth) in all people.

Freud argued that the infantile fixation on an imaginary father must be removed from the psychology of people so that they can aim for greater human development and educate the self in face of reality.  The human father as a guide and guardian enables mortals to see pollution as real and work to end it, to see the assault on nature and enforce laws that nourish nature, to comprehend the finiteness of worldly resources and use them sparingly while working for alternative sources of energy, food, and so forth. When mortals realize that they have nothing to rely upon but themselves, collectively, then mortals will use their powers properly for the good of all.  When the earthly father is recognized as a husbandman maintaining the fruits of the planet so that there are resources for future generations and not obscene wealth for a few, there will be no William, Edward, or Charles Koch squandering the resources of the world nor will people allow themselves to be bullied by Mitt

Romney repeating his Bain Capital attacks on private entrepreneuralships and businesses by immediate gratification decisions and open ballots as he did on June 6, 2012, when the former governor told CEOs to tell their people to vote for him if they wish to keep their jobs (read here and here and here). That is bullying and is in character with the prescribed role of a bishop in the Mormon Church—a roll that Mitt played before and still holds the key card (read here and here).

Only when mortals are free—emancipating themselves from all forms of uninvited forms of control—especially the authority that threatens to grasp the world and reduce its objectivity and the rights of its citizens—will mortals ascend to the level of self-realization and self-actualization. Religion represents unparalleled powerlessness and dependence: on a god, a priest, a pope, a rabbi or pastor—but the rejections of religion gives mortals power and independence—along with the responsibility and obligation of working for the common good.

Freud’s successor and colleague, Carl Gustav Jung (a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology and did not share Freud’s views nor interpretations; born July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland and died June 6, 1961, at Ksnacht), was not as astute or insightful a psychologist as Freud. Jung’s presentation of psychology was far narrower and thus more acceptable and adaptable to religions that persecute in the name Truth and the quest for it—by any means: lies, distortions and fantasies. Jung claimed that anything that exists is true because it exists, stating that “truth is a fact and not a judgment” (Jung, Carl G[ustav]. (1938). Psychology and Religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; London, UK: H. Milford, Oxford University Press”).  In reality, truth is relative as it depends on the individual affirming its truthful nature, but can be rejected as fiction by those who find problems with any statement or word.

Jung wrote in his introduction, in direct opposition to Freud psychological and philosophical works: “I restrict myself to the observation of phenomena and I refrain from any application of metaphysical or philosophical considerations” (p.2). This means that as unethical as Mitt Romney’s secret broadcast to the Koch Brothers and other billionaire CEOs that they have a right to order their employees to vote

Republican, it is justified because it occurred (read here and here). It is equal to the argument made by Joseph Smith that polygamy was a right of man even without the consent of the woman (Smith was ultimately divorced and left by his first wife who did not tolerate Smith’s second marriage while she was stilled married to the founder of the Mormon religion;  Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry) (1912), History of the Church, 6, Deseret News, pp. p. 411; Anderson, Richard Lloyd (1998). “The Prophet Joseph Smith and His Plural Wives“, FARMS Review of Books (The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship) 10 (2): 67–104), or the erasure of souls in Black people based on a corrupt reading of Genesis 3 that was forged from ancient Akkadian mythology into Hebrew fables. What Jung selected to ignore is that an idea exists—regardless if it is a delusion or corresponds to fact.  Romney sees corporations as families and therefore have a right, if not a duty, to tell the family members (employees or workers) not only what to think but for whom to vote (read here and here and watch here).

The existence of the idea does not make it true in any sense, although this absurdity reached its zenith under the Santorums of Pennsylvania (Karen, who had been living with an abortion provider before moving out to be with her future husband, Rick) who took a dead fetus to their home for their children to play with it as if the mortality was not final and the cadaver was their brother. Jung’s approach is not tenable from a psychiatric standpoint—it exists only in the area of relativism (cf. Dunne, Clare (2002). “Prelude”. Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul: An Illustrated Biography. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 3 f).  Large families are urged by both the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches–despite the reality that there is insufficient resources to sustain life on this water planet we call Earth.

Carl Jung’s attempts to differentiate between “subjective” and “objective” existence is the weakest link in the chain he forged.  This is seen in the defense of bullies and bullyism in the speeches of Bryan Fischer (of the certified hate group American Family Association), Billy Graham (who scrubbed his website that had declared Mormonism a cult after he announced his endorsement of the Mormon bishop (whose faith Billy Graham blasted) Romney after the Mormon bishop promised to sign into legislation stronger ties between church and state, “protect

Christianity” and outlaw LGBT same-sex marriages, abortion, and other pet projects of the original Elmer Gantry), Ann Coulter (who tells parents to disown their sons if they are LGBT and not conservatives), and others in their opposition to workers rights (with Scott Walker, the billionaires candidate who bought the office, in Wisconsin being among their favorites), LGBT rights in Washington state, Minnesota, Maryland, and Maine with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) funding hate to drive people to the polls. Hate is a unique mental illness: it is the deliberate negation of intimacy, rejection of passion, and avoidance of commitment. Hate originates from stories people create about the target: a person, place, thing, etc: such as hatred towards a skin pigmentation, a sexual orientation, age, weight, and so forth.  It is irrational, and in most cases, as with Maggie Gallagher and Bryan Fischer more than Billy Graham who peppers his sermons with vitriol of hate, hate is a statement that the person does not truly like himself or herself, and thus to compensate must strike out at a marginalized person or group (cf. Halperin, Eran (2012). “Review of The nature of hate.” doi.1037/a0026863. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol 18(1), Feb 2012, 101-103; Leader, Tirza; Mullen, Brian; Rice, Diana (2009). “Complexity and valence in ethnophaulisms and exclusion of ethnic out-groups: What puts the ” hate” into hate speech?” doi: 10.1037/a0013066. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 96(1), Jan 2009, 170-182). To this end Jung argues that the essence of religious experience is the submission to powers higher than the self. Jung wrote: “[religion] is a careful and scrupulous observation of what Rudolph Otto (born September 25, 1869 – died March 6, 1937, he was an eminent German Lutheran theologian and scholar of comparative religion [comparative is not technically correct, as Otto measured the religions of the world against that of the Lutheran Church to find all wanting in substance and coverage in his work The Idea of the Holy (the actual title of the 1917 work published in 1918 is Das Heilige – Über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen (The Holy – On the Irrational in the Idea of the Divine and its Relation to the Rational) Breslau, Germany: Trewendt & Granier, to discuss the idea of the “Non-rational factor” in religion) aptly termed the ‘numinosum,’ styled by Otto as “numinous”, that is, a dynamic existence or effect, not caused by an arbitrary act of will (cf. Mok, Daniël (2012). Rudolf Otto: Een kleine biografie. Preface by Gerardus van der Leeuw. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Abraxas) had written: on the need to accept faith to make sense out of what seemed to be senseless.. On the contrary, religion “seizes and controls the human subject which is always rather its victim than its creator” (ibid., p. 4).

With Otto’s study at the forefront, Jung argues that a religious experience is seized by a power outside of the self: it is a concept of the unconscious being that is religious. Jung argues that the influence of the unconscious upon the conscious “is a basic religious phenomenon” (ibid., p. 46). While Jung bows before the altar of immediate reality, Freud stood sentry over the aim of human development, if unchecked by religion, would lead to the achievement of ideals: knowledge (reason, truth, wisdom: logos), brotherly love (λόγος, from λέγω lego“I say”), reducing suffering, independence of and for the self, and the acceptance of responsibility (these are the teachings of Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, The Prophets, etc.).   While the denial of responsibility is quite human, it also shows inadequacy in the mind of the person denying responsibility and a flaw in that individual’s character (cf. Schwartz, Shalom H. (1974). “Awareness of interpersonal consequences, responsibility denial, and volunteering.” doi: 10.1037/h0036644. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 30(1), Jul 1974, 57-63).

Freud spoke out against the theistic-supernatural concepts as stages in human development that were once, in an embryonic civilization, necessary to ensure initial growth. However, once growth began, it would have accelerated faster without the burden of theocracy.

For Jung, religion was an emotional experience that he defended, claiming that people need emotional ties and releases; in short, for Jung it is the psychology of the individual that is elevated to religious phenomenon. Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter whose philosophy is “objectivism”; she was an activist atheist who advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion arguing for wealth and power, regardless of how gained, was the true strength of mortals (she actively supported laissez-faire capitalism that she believed was the only social system that protected individual rights, and found any form of state control or help for the poor to be antithetical to the needs of those striving for ultimate wealth–her writings being denounced by most literary and economic theorists and critics). Paul Ryan is dedicated to Rand’s ideology) would fit comfortable into Jungian psychology. 

It is from the writings of Rand that Paul Ryan gained his initial  Weltanschaung working against the teaching of the Jesus of the New Testament fitting comfortably with Jung, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and George W. Bush. While Romney has attempted to distance himself from the Bush legacy, the Mormon bishop uses most of the same words as Bush, and his proposed policies match those of Bush and his cabinet: especially the stand taken by Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney.  Both Rice and Cheney have publicly sided with the CEOs since the CEOs control the jobs even though salaries frequently exceed the salaries of all of their workers.

Freud would have stood with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters and, most likely, would vote for Obama.  Freud preferred a reality that can be judged by each person for what benefits the individual.  This philosophy that strengthened his psychoanalytic writings is in line with the politics and philosophy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, all of whom worked for an open society, a right to education and political discourse and who rejected discrimination. 

Obama has gone the farthest: fair pay for equal work (the Lilly Ledbetter Act (Public Law 111-2, S. 181) that was signed into law on January 29, 2009–Obama’s first official act as President–that Romney vigorously opposed, claiming that male bosses have the right to underpay women for work that men did but they are tasked to do as women), a woman’s right to determine her destiny and what she will do with her body (read here and here), the right to health care, the right to a good education, revitalizing the economy and more.

The fact that religion plays an ever-increasing role in contemporary politics (everywhere) shows Jungian influence. This is especially true among the craven and crass American Council of Roman Catholic Bishops (especially the bishops of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (John C. Nienstedt), and Peoria, IL (Daniel Jenky who compared Obama to Hitler, exposing his ignorance of Hitler and his Third Reich), both of whom are using church tithes for personal political agendas).  Nienstedt and Jenky are set to attack like a pack of hyenas President Obama and “Obamacare” as dividing religion.  The Roman Catholic Church in the USA, led by Dolan of New York City and Francis Cardinal George, OMI, wrongly states that Obamacare (Universal Health Care) requires churches to provide birth control, death panels and similar measures, but none appear anywhere in the legislation), and with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Knights of Columbus that both claim they are formed for purposes of charity yet use their gifts and contributions (in defiance of IRS regulations) to fight against the right of choice from abortion to same-sex marriage.

To stop voters from exercising free choice at the polls in November 2012, billionaire CEOs warn workers that if Obama wins the workers will lose their jobs, banks will foreclose on their homes, and poverty will strangle the economy.  The most odious, deceitful and duplicitous states whose Republican/Tea Party controlled governments who have attacked voters with the most vile voting restrictions are: Alabama, Florida (a judge later tossed out most of the draconian restrictions), Georgia, Iowa whose Tea Party Republicans in the legislature are among the least educated and most vitriolic vote deniers in the nation and is under the strangling control of Secretary of State Matt Schultz, Mississippi, Ohio created by Secretary of State Jon Husted, Pennsylvania whose current restrictive laws are worse than they were in 1960 when the KKK and neo-Nazi groups had the ear of Pennsylvania legislators and whose legislation surpassed that of those of segregationist Mississippi in the 1960s, Nebraska where gun owners have more rights than those who do not possess firearms, North Carolina where potential voters can use a National Rifle Association (NRA) membership card or a NASCAR ticket stub as proof of eligibility to vote, Rhode Island that allows a person to vote if he or she shows a bank statement, South Carolina that requires a photo ID among other qualifiers (although the law has been suspended until 2013), South Dakota that questions the rights of women as not being able to make a decision for themselves without the guidance of a male especially in the area of birth control and family planning, Tennessee where the Republican secretary of state, Tre Hargett, rifles in to disenfranchise minorities and the poor requiring proof of citizenship, Texas enacted legislation to bar or limit Latinos/Latinas and disabled people from voting, Virginia that (among other draconian dictates) is aimed at disenfranchising women from their right to vote, in keeping with Mormon philosophy that women are subordinate to men and need the guidance of men to function–similar to Islam and Sharia law, West Virginia, and Wisconsin led by  the governor, Scott Walker, to disempower union activists, teachers, and retired–while allowing (and encouraging) corporate executives to exert pressure on labor to vote Republican.

Not only has government attacked voting rights, but religion has spent more money on suppressing human and basic civil rights than any other group.  The most sinister sanctimonious services are those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and the Roman Catholic Church (read here and here), with such organized hate groups as the Knights of Columbus (the Roman Catholic version of the KKK, of which more than 50% of its members belong to the Klan) spending millions to defeat marginalized people in opposition to the majority of Roman Catholics in the USA who denouncethe Knights of Columbus as a fascist group that does evil and little good and complain that the bishops are daily demanding they vote in league with the nation of Vatican City that has throughout its history been vocal in its opposition to democracy, support of monarchy and dictatorship as seen in its blessing of the twentieth century tyrannies of Franco in Spain, Peron in Argentina, Fujimori in Peru, Ferdinand and Imalda Marcos of the Philippines, and Pinochet in Chile. Its record throughout history has even been more

blood-stained, as with a Te Deum sung in the Vatican on hearing of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacrein France (August 24-25, 1572), the rape of

Perú in the sixteenth century, and the slaughter of native people of Mexico by its priests sent to “preach to those you find.”

The most viciously vile of all Roman Catholic bishops in the USA is Joseph J. Tyson, the bishop in Yakima, Washington, who told the clergy that they must ask Catholics for a give a “generous donation” to the campaign trying to reject Referendum 74 (equality in marriage) in defiance of IRS code. 

The theological terrorist, Tyson told the priest under his jurisdiction: “I am asking you to announce a special parishioner financial appeal at each Mass on the weekend of August 25/26 or September 1/2—whichever one you choose—to promote the September 8/9 in-pew collection for the Preserve Marriage Washington campaign,” Tyson wrote in a letter earlier this month (.pdf).  Tyson added a postscript to protect himself from an IRS audit and tax exemption repeal, “Please Note: This is not a parish collection. Please be sure that parish staff knows that these envelopes are NOT to be opened or recorded by the parish.”  Read Tyson’s blog.  Tyson has classic symptoms of irrational thought and mental conflict in a study of his words, and makes him dangerous to himself and to his community.  He openly callas for money, then diminishes the significance of his words to caution parishoners not to put in any bill / check that might identify the giver or the recipient. This increased the anger of the congregation and their ultimate rejection of the plea (cf. Juvonen, Jaana (1992). “Negative peer reactions from the perspective of the reactor.” doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.84.3.314.  Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 84(3), Sep 1992, 314-321; cp. McCreary, John K. (1948). “The psychology of morality.” doi: 10.1037/h0084074. Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie, Vol 2(4), Dec 1948, 212-223).

Worse than Tyson or any Roman Catholic bishop is the knavish Knights of Columbus–named after a rapist, soldier-of-fortune, and mass murderer.  Headquartered in New Haven, CT, the KC labels itself as a charitable institution seeking to bring solace and comfort to those in need.  It does not.  According to the Internal Revenue Service, the Knights of Columbus donated $6.25 million to fight same-sex marriage initiatives between 2005-2012. Close to $2 million of those funds went directly to NOM, with the approval of the pope whose agents are working to overthrow democracy in all nations where tolerance is practiced and enshrined in law.  Its Seattle, WA, chapter shows how sumptuous and discreditable the KC is in the West, spending millions on furnishings while people go for want of food, water, and shelter. Compare it with the Marian Council 3827 at Bloomington.  The Knights of Columbus are as corrupt as the medieval papacy.

Rigidly stalwart in support of the corrupt clergy and hierarchy of bishops, archbishops and cardinals in the USA and abroad, the Knights of Columbus remain quiet on pedophiles within the church, and actually support bishops such as Dolan of New York City who attempted to silence legal claims against the Roman Catholic Church with money.  The inordinate amount of money held and used by the Knights of Columbus is spellbinding and awesome.

The Knights of Columbus, founded by  Father Michael J. McGivney (a “Venerable” in the Roman Catholic Church, meaning he is considered holy and may some day be declared a saint), are among the richest groups (insurance, and other capital ventures) in the USA and regularly are investigated for money laundrying at their national headquarters both in the USA and abroad as far as the Philippines.  Rather than spending money on charitable deeds, the Knights of Columbus have a long and stained history of working to suppress human and civil rights(read here for Minnesota, here for the US Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, and here), to fight against women seeking equality with men and self-determination, and protecting pedophiles within the Roman Catholic Church.

Dolan’s duplicity has been repeated frequently, especially among bishops in the Midwest (Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and boardering states), such as the crimes of Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, Bishop John R. Gaydos, and those who have worked in concert to cover up those crimes against children in the Middle West.  The problem is that the Knights of Columbus is an insurance agency masquerading as a charitable organization headed by laity and bishops, with $80 billion in assets; $40 billion is devoted to insurance–and pay no taxes since it claims it is a charitable organization.  In truth it is organized hate.  In 2008, the Knights of Columbus Corporation paid chief executive officer Carl A. Anderson $1.17 million. 

The Knights of Columbus Corporation makes no effort to support worker benefits, a living wage, or affordable healthcare for the citizens of the United States. Boston, Massachusetts Sean Cardinal O’Malley identified 159 pedophile priests 25 August 2011 in Boston whose salaries were paid with pension funds earmarked for the Daughters of St. Paul, who had to sue the church conglomerate to get their retirement fund restored. Knights of Columbus could not be bothered as numerous complaints were being filed against the organization itself, that, like the Boy Scouts of America that has admitted keeping on over 1250 pedophileswhile at the same time denying openly gay scouts their right to earn the Eagle badge (the hypocrisy is startling! When I complained about being molested in the 1950s, I was told to “shut up” or the camp attendants at Camp Ingawanis in Iowa would drown me; when I told my mother, she refused to believe that the older males, whom she knew, would rape a small child–a mindset in Iowa that last to this day), is riddled with

pedophiles and forced homosexual acts. Pedophiles are subject to acting out fantasies for various reasons, but it occurs during different mood swings; psychologists must help pedophiles recognize their mood-temperment and not hide it or attempt to compensate for it, as compensation or denial leads to more aggressive mood swings (cf. Gillies, Laurie A.; Hashmall, Judith M.; Hilton, N. Zoe; Webster, Christopher D.  (1992). “Relapse prevention in pedophiles: Clinical issues and program development.” doi: 10.1037/h0078714. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol 33(2), Apr 1992, 199-210; the article is in French). Archbishop Harry J. Flynn (ret.) of St. Paul-Minneapolis raided funds ($3.1 million) from a priest retirement account and another fund ($700,000) earmarked for charity and social services to settle child molestation claims. This is religion?

Iowa is a particularly troubling case study and a state where excellence is equated with athletic prowess and not intellectual ability, leading many craven politicians to forgive “transgressions if the transgressor is hailed as an athlete” or a religious person, but rejects the same for the academic or one not athletically engaged; the Knights of Columbus push athletics more than academic advances, and thus fund activities where performance on a court or ball diamond is hailed and indiscretions occur, but not in the classroom or arts as more insurance is sold to those who watch or participate in games than attend lectures or classes.  Pedopiles in the pulpit or on the game-field are forgiven and their peccadillos pushed behind a curtain of self-righteousness.  The same is true in politics–the more fervent the politician is in broadcasting his affirmation of a religious belief or membership in a religious organization, the quicker the Knight of Columbus and churches are to grant him or her special status and endorsement (as with Bob Vander Plaats) regardless of the candidates mental state or performance for the good of all constituents, with those who interview or associate with the religious affirming candidate quick to internalize behavior, while visiting with or being seen with a politican who is not prone to expressing religious views is seen as a threat (cf. Houts, Arthur C.; Graham, Kenton (1986). “Can religion make you crazy? Impact of client and therapist religious values on clinical judgments.” doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.54.2.267. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 54(2), Apr 1986, 267-27).

The Iowa Knights of Columbus leadership have been regularly tainted with scandals from sex to money laundrying, and its bishops with pedophile cover-ups and pay-offs.  Davenport disbursed $37 million to 156 claimants molested by 24 priests and then filed bankruptcy in 2008. Dubuque paid $5 million to 20 survivors victimized by pedophile priests over the last 50 years.  Bishop R. Walker Nickless remains a cipher in the current phase of pedophile priest scandal, although his predecessor, Bishop Lawrence Soens is the central figure in the Iowa settlements.  This cover-up and payment of predatory pedophile priests show mental instability among the bishops who are directly contributing to mood swings of the pedophile who internalizes that if he “confesses his sin” he is somehow exempt from behavior modification. Parsimonious religious-based behavioral activation intervention for depression in college students can be beneficial, but not covering-up continued cases of misbehavior (cp. Armento, Maria E. A.; McNulty, James K.; Hopko, Derek R. (2012).  “Behavioral activation of religious behaviors (BARB): Randomized trial with depressed college students.” doi: 10.1037/a0026405. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol 4(3), Aug 2012, 206-222; on covering-up psychopathic predators, ref. Erickson, Steven K.; Vitacco, Michael J. (). “Predators and punishment.” doi: 10.1037/a0024607. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol 18(1), Feb 2012, 1-17).

Freud claimed that over actions were the result of an overactive libido, building on the work  of Karl Abraham.  Freud pointed out that these libidinal drives can conflict with the conventions of civilized behavior, represented in the psyche by the superego, requiring the need to conform to society and control the libido.  If the control is extreme or misunderstood, those whose libido is overly active can experience tension and variouos psychological disturbances within the psyche of the individual leading to aggression, violence, withdrawal, bullying, and suicide.  The disturbances prompt the use of ego defenses to dissipate the psychic energy of these unmet and mostly unconscious needs into other forms or result in neurosis. When society puts an emphasis on a form of sexual behavior or denies people the right to express themselves in that behavior style (such as LGBT), it can have catastrophic effects:  usually seizures, withdrawal, or suicide.

A primary goal of psychoanalysis is to bring the drives of the id into consciousness.  This is done by allowing the drives to be understood directly without judgment, reducing the patient’s reliance on ego defenses. The problem here is religion that limits what a person can do or how it can be done; for example: denying sexuality’s force to be expressed by teaching abstinence (an unnatural sexuality), preaching chastity as if it was normal, and discouraging sexuality altogether (Froböse, Gabriele; Froböse, Rolf and Gross, Michael (trans) (2006). Lust and Love: Is it more than Chemistry?  Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry).

While Jung argued that the libido was “psychic energy”, that has proven too marginalized to be an effective response.  Jung, feverishly working to retain his elevation of ontology into the realm of reality wrote that the libido expresses itself only through symbols: “It is the energy that manifests itself in the life process and is perceived subjectively as striving and desire”  (Ellenberger, Henri (1970). The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 697). Recently,  philosopher and psychologist James Giles has argued that human sexual desire is neither a biological instinct nor something learned or constructed by culture. Rather, sexual desire is an existential need based on the awareness of the individual that he or she has a gender and that gender requires satisfaction (sex)–which is one of the basic needs detailed by Maslow.  Gender without sexuality leaves the individual in a state of incompleteness and thus the individual can become restive, aggressive, withdrawing from society at any level, and makes the contemplation of suicide as a viable alternative to continuing living in an unfriendly, unloving, nonresponsive and hateful homophobic or heterophobic world (cf. Giles, James [2004]. The Nature of Sexual Desire, Westport, CT: Praeger).  To remove the sense of incompleteness, the individual will attempt to bare the body and soul, engage in carressing a loved object as if to ellicit a response, but frequently is rebuffed by the object of attraction who is equally chained to the ropes of religion that forbids select acts (even though those acts are found in the literature of the religion).  This is most clearly seen in the Mormon religion that, until Utah sought admission to the Union, ruled that a man could have any number of wives, but a wife could only have one husband. There are no recorded statistics (that I am aware of) on the number of mental breakdowns, murders and suicides were committed because of this, although we do know that Joseph Smith’s first wife divorced him and later spoke out against polygamy.

The challenge in the Mormon community is to free itself from the primitive patriarchy that is the foundation of the religion, and enter into a real world where men are not always dominant (a theme, tragically, detailed by Bob Vander Plaats of West Des Moines, Iowa, in his e-mails and mailings on his program The FAMiLY, where he celebrates the mistranslations found in the Pauline letters where the man is to dominate; it was a great money making scheme, but not as lucrative as when the Iowan sold his endorsement for the Republican presidential candidacy to Rick Santorum for $1 million (read here and here and here and here).  Bob Vander Plaats lies when he claims he is an educator (he was a coach), and a biblical authority, yet has no formal education and shows no independent knowledge of Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek (any form), etc., but depends on bad English translations–without the least comprehension of the text of Colossians 3:9:  μὴ ψεύδεσθε εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ, or more simply: nolite mentiri invicem expoliantes vos veterem hominem cum actibus eius (Biblia Sacra Vulgata) that is firm in the Armenian: Մի՛ ստէք իրարու. հանեցէ՛ք ձեր վրայէն հին մարդը՝ իր գործերով or even in his native Dutch: Liegt niet tegen elkander, dewijl gij uitgedaan hebt den ouden mens met zijn werken.  It is obvious that Vander Plaats either is unfamiliar with, or choses to ignore, Leviticus 6:1-2:  וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃  נֶפֶשׁ כִּי תֶחֱטָא וּמָעֲלָה מַעַל בַּיהוָה וְכִחֵשׁ בַּעֲמִיתֹו בְּפִקָּדֹון אֹו־בִתְשׂוּמֶת יָד אֹו בְגָזֵל אֹו עָשַׁק אֶת־עֲמִיתֹו׃ 

These letters were written by a group (or if you wish to be literal, by one man) who never met the Jesus of the New Testament, never was a part of the original ministry, and was using strained reality to elevate patriarchy where women were to be silent (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; actually it is an invocation that women were not to sing so as to distract men from prayers) and be obedient (submissive; Colossians 3:18: Αἱ γυναῖκες, ὑποτάσσεσθε (upotassesthe)and it appears only once in the New Testament; it does not mean “to yield” as in Hebrews 13:17:  ὑπείκετε and does not include the Old Testament concept of feigning (pretense: יִתְכַּֽחֲשׁוּ־) self being obedient, as in 2 Samuel 22:45:  בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִתְכַּחֲשׁוּ־לִי לִשְׁמֹועַ אֹזֶן יִשָּׁמְעוּ לִי׃) τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ὡς ἀνῆκεν ἐν κυρίῳ, and 1 Peter 3:1: Ὁμοίως αἱ [αἱ does not appear in the original text] γυναῖκες ὑποτασσόμεναι τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν, ἵνα καὶ εἴ τινες ἀπειθοῦσι τῷ λόγῳ, διὰ τῆς τῶν γυναικῶν ἀναστροφῆς ἄνευ λόγου κερδηθήσονται,; submission does not mean being coerced, but to be within a “willing conciliation” where both parties make decisions jointly out of a willingness to maintain peace, open communication and mutual respect; the problem is the extraordinarily bad translations of scripture that fundamentalists have no idea, nor any desire to learn, what was really written or meant) to the male figure (primarily the husband, but afterwards to the father, and so forth–a patriarchy that populates the injunctions in the chapter (sutra) Cow in the Qur’an).  Women in the Qur’an have less value and can be beaten by their husband (Qur’an 4:34) that Muslims came from Allah’s [god] instruction originally imposed on the Babylonian Job (Qur’an 38:44).  Women have a less favorable role in the Hadith: Bukhari (72:715), Bukhari (72:715) where Muhammad’s child-bride  Aisha complained that Muslim women sufferred more than women “of non-believers”, as she was beaten by Muhammad who struck her in the chest: Muslim (4:2127) as did his father-in-laws who saw it as funny Muslim (9:3506) as beatings were considered “necessary” Abu Dawud (2141-2142).

In each case, where a man was the chief (bishop, ayatollah, etc), he was sanctioned in all of his actions. To this end, Romney had the right according to his office as bishop in the Mormon church not only to take another wife (or several), but to control her, and control all businesses–including telling corporation executive officers what to tell (instruct) their employees: to vote for him.  Jung would have agreed; Freud would have rejected such a contention as demeaning the psychological rights of the individual.