“Homo Homini Deus“: Freud as a Religious Critic in “Psycho- Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides)”

Summary:

The article offers a brief history of Freud´s religious criticism until 1911 and examines its forms and functions in the famous writing “Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides)” (1911). It shows the wide gulf between Freud´s view on paranoia and religion and that of materialistic psychiatry. The author demonstrates that Freud´s criticism of Daniel Paul Schreber pursued within the scope of the diagnosis of paranoia is an intensive form of religious criticism and argues that in spite of the selectivity and the reduction of complexity that are typical of Freud´s approach Freud still presents a subtle and differentiated picture of religion. The founder of psychoanalysis managed to dissociate Schreber´s delusions from the religious sphere and to acknowledge to a considerable extent Schreber´s rebellion against authority as well as the poetic qualities of his system. At the end of the article the author provides an explanation why Freud had to stick to the psychiatric label of “paranoia”.