Religion and Violence – the Psychoanalitical Approach

Abstract

In the first part I summarize Freud’s conception of agressivnes, which has changed through time as Freud modified his theories. I continue with Fromm and his distinction between adaptive biological and non-adaptive biological agressivnes. In the second part I try to answer the question of what can be the contribution of psychoanalysis to the elucidation and prevention of non-adaptive biological agresivness. In the conclusion I come to the conclusion that its contributin is modest but not negligible. As for the connection between violence and religion, I can summarize my thoughts in the statement, that, religion is merely an aliby for an aspiration for power, comodities of questionable value and enslavement of man. These are excatly the things which contradict the essence of any genuine religiousity.