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The Future of an Illusion (The Standard Edition) (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) Paperback – September 17, 1989


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The Future of an Illusion (The Standard Edition)  (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) + Civilization and Its Discontents (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud)
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Product Details

  • Series: Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
  • Paperback: 112 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; The Standard Edition edition (September 17, 1989)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393008312
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393008319
  • Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Gregory C. Richter's fluent new translation shows one of Freud's most popular books to be as clear, colloquial, and compelling as anything else by the master of psychoanalysis, and Todd Dufresne's entertaining introduction makes a good case for its surprising contemporary relevance, in spite of its often puzzling arguments."--Thomas Kemple, University of British Columbia --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

The time has come for something better.
Dan Glover
If anyone actually took the time to read this review, I thank you for your time and patience, and enjoy the book!
Chris
This short book is well worth the plunge.
Herbert L Calhoun

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 113 people found the following review helpful By Christopher Hefele on January 21, 2003
Format: Paperback
Reading Freud is always refreshing -- not only is he a good writer, but he also has many deep psychological insights. In his 71 page text, "The Future of an Illusion," he tackles the subject of religion. A livelong atheist, Freud argues that religion is derived from a child-like sense of helplessness in the world. Its purpose, he says, is to explain the sometimes-unfathomable world, to provide societal order, and to give comfort and happiness (particularly for the "the masses" and the poor, uneducated and oppressed). Although Freud wants to reshape civilization's relationship with religion, he also recognizes that widespread atheism could undermine societal stability. Overall, this is a good, quick read -- perfect for those interested in religion/atheism, psychology and the intersection between the two.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful By Herbert L Calhoun on March 29, 2006
Format: Paperback
This short book is well worth the plunge. It gives a psychoanalytic answer to the questions, Why God? and Why we still need a god? The book, written late in Freud's career, remains controversial mostly because of the nature of the subject matter. However, one should not be surprised that Freud's analysis ends as it does - suggesting that the world might be better off without religion. Many reviewers attribute this conclusion to the fact that Freud himself was not a religious man. However, another point of view might be equally valid: any psychoanalytic analysis of religion -- even by a theist -- would likely have come to the same conclusion.

In fact, Freud's conclusion -- that religion is an illusion born out of a need to surmount fear of the unknown, with its central component being a "father complex" - - is not far removed from, and actually resonates with, that of other scientists -- in particular with John F. Schumaker's "The Wings of Illusion," as well as his much deeper "The Corruption of Reality," which carries these ideas much further; or even Pascal Boyer's "Religion Explained." For a refreshing opposing point of view that is also scientific, I found Peter Berger's Rumors of Angels a sensitive counterbalance to Freud's non-emotional approach.

While this was not Freud's best work, neither is it his worse. Given his Civilizations and its Discontents, it would be difficult to imagine him not having left a firm statement on the psychoanalytic nature of religion.

Because it is Freud, it deserves Five Stars.
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37 of 42 people found the following review helpful By Charles Ashbacher HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on May 4, 2005
Format: Paperback
The common perception of Sigmund Freud is that he was a pioneering psychiatrist with too much focus on the sexual aspects of human existence. However, he was very much a product of the European culture of the last decades of the nineteenth century. In this book, his focus is on religion and its role in civilization.

Freud considers religion to be an illusion, but one that is necessary. He argues that without some form of moralistic rudder, humans would be in a death struggle for resources until eventually nearly all would be killed. Therefore, in order for civilization to be possible, a code of behavior must exist, which generates the necessary order and cooperation. This requisite behavior was codified in formal religions, where people are taught to suppress their animal desires for goods, sex and sustenance, so that all will get a share and conflict is avoided. The payback for your deeds takes place after you die, where good deeds are rewarded with a place in heaven and evil deeds by a place of punishment. Freud notes that delaying the reward until after death then guarantees that the social behavior will last throughout ones life.

I recently read the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. In that book, Dawkins argues that much of our altruistic behavior can be explained by simple formulas whereby the behavior leads to the presence of more copies of our genes. If this is combined with the valid points that Freud makes in this book, then it is possible that religious belief is coded in our genes. It is an interesting proposition and Freud's arguments are strong. I enjoyed reading this book and came away with a new appreciation for the quality of Freud's intellect.
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48 of 61 people found the following review helpful By R. Schwartz on October 3, 2003
Format: Paperback
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This is Freud's scientific analysis of religion. Religion, along with government and social, moral and ethical codes, or, civilization act as removing man from his true instinctal and destructive nature into a civil society. Religion is a neccessary illusion derived from men's wishes.
Freud can be applauded and admired as a great thinker and psychoanalyst. This is an essential book to read. Yet Freud misses out on the mystical experience, the religious or psychal ability to perceive the irrational, the awe of the numenous, the perceived knowledge apart from rational thinking and intellectual analysis. Or in Rudolph Otto's title, "the idea of the holy."
Freud ends his book, on page 71 with:
"No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion
it would be to suppose that what science
cannot give us we can get elsewhere."
So Freud was amazingly accurate on one religious foundation: human ability to create wishes and to civilize himself and in contrast Freud was missing a great deal in the mystical, the non-rational element, thus he discarded all religion as a universally accepted solution to the conflicts that arise in childhood relation to the father. While this may have some validity, it misses completely the symbolic mythological teachings that attempt to convey what is claimed universal to be real religious experience. This is where Freud leaves off and Carl Jung continues.
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