Disciplining Freud on Religion

Gregory Kaplan is Anna Smith Fine Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Rice University.William B. Parsons is associate professor of religious studies at Rice University.

It is well known that in formulating his general theoretical framework and views on religion Freud drew on multiple disciplines within the natural and social sciences, as well as from the humanities. This edited collection adds to the continued multidisciplinary interest in Freud by focusing on his understanding and interpretation of and relationship to religion. It 'disciplines' Freud by situating his work on religion from the methodological interests and theoretical advances found in diverse disciplinary contexts. Scholars within the field of religious studies, Jewish Studies, philosophy, and the natural sciences bring together their diverse voices to heighten the academic understanding of Freud on religion. The contributors aim to establish closer and more direct interdisciplinary communication and collaboration with regard to Freudian Studies. This volume should appeal to a wide range of scholars, for upper level undergraduate and graduate classes and those training in psychoanalysis.

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 I: On Freud, Religion and Religious Studies Chapter 3 1. Desiderata and Possibilities for the Psychological Study of Religion: How to Enlarge the Place of Freudian Thought in Religious Studies Chapter 4 2. When Throne and Altar are in Danger: Freud, Mourning, and Religion in Modernity Part 5 II. Perspectives from the Natural and Social Sciences Chapter 6 3. Love the Mother, Hate the Father: Understanding Sociology's Vehement Rejection of Freud on Religion Chapter 7 4. Of Chariots, Navels and Winged Steeds: The Dialogue between Psychoanalysis and Buddhism Chapter 8 5. Freud and Neuroscience: A Return to Origins Part 9 III. Philosophical Reconsiderations Chapter 10 6. Freud and Philosophy of Religion after Metaphysics Chapter 11 7. Dreaming Foreclosed and the 'Jewish Joke': The Paradoxes of Identification,or Martin Buber and Sigmund Freud on the Meaning of Judaism Chapter 12 8. Freudian Unconscious and Secularization of Judaism Chapter 13 Bibliography