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C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud: Two Contrasting Worldviews. Eric D. Achtyes, M.D., M.S. Clinical Assistant Professor Department of Psychiatry Michigan State University College of Human Medicine April 3, 2009. Overview. Background Sigmund Freud’s Life C.S. Lewis’ Life
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C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud: Two Contrasting Worldviews Eric D. Achtyes, M.D., M.S. Clinical Assistant Professor Department of Psychiatry Michigan State University College of Human Medicine April 3, 2009
Overview Background Sigmund Freud’s Life C.S. Lewis’ Life Suffering and Pain: Freud and Lewis Discussion/Questions
Background Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. - Book and PBS video: “The Question of God”. Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Asked to teach a class on Sigmund Freud to undergraduates. Students wanted a countering opinion. Nicholi incorporated Lewis’ views. Has been teaching the course “Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis: Two Contrasting World Views” to Harvard undergraduates and at the Harvard Medical School for >30 years as a critical review of literature. Dr. Nicholi’s analyst, when he was in training, was Dr. Felix Deutsch, who had been Freud’s physician when his cancer was first diagnosed.
Bibliography Freud: An Autobiographical Study Question of a Weltanschauung Lay Analysis Future of an Illusion A Religious Experience Totem and Taboo Moses and Monotheism Psychoanalysis and Faith Civilization and Its Discontents Lewis: Mere Christianity Miracles Surprised by Joy The Screwtape Letters The Problem of Pain A Grief Observed
Bibliography Cont. Other “The Question of God,” Armand Nicholi, Jr. “The Illusion of a Future,” Oskar Pfister Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, John, Psalms from the Bible. “Freud and the Problem of God,” Hans Kung
Freud's Last SessionWritten by Mark St. Germain, directed by Tyler Marchant As suggested in the Epilogue of "The Question of God" by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. Starring: Fritz Weaver June 10, 2009 - June 28, 2009 After escaping the Nazis in Vienna, legendary psychiatrist Dr. Sigmund Freud invites a young, little known professor, C.S. Lewis, to his home in London. Lewis expects to be called on the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book but the dying Freud has a more significant agenda. On the day England entered WW II, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex and the meaning of life – only two weeks before Freud chose to take his own.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Anna Freud: “If you want to know my father… read his letters.” Sigismund Schlomo Freud, born May 6, 1856 in Frieberg, Moravia (Czech Republic) to Jacob and Amalia Freud. Amalia (teenager) was Jacob’s (40 yrs old) 3rd wife. He was already a grandfather and had 2 sons from his first marriage, 1 older than Amalia, and 1 a year younger. Freud was cared for by a nursemaid until 2 1/2 years old. She was a devout Roman Catholic and took him to church with her.
Sigmund Freud’s Life The nursemaid “told me a great deal about God Almighty, and hell, and who instilled in me a high opinion of my own capacities.” His mother called him, her 1st born, her “golden Siggie” and he was given his own room in which to study. Age <2 Freud’s younger brother, Julius, died, absorbing a lot of his mother’s time. His nanny was accused of stealing and dismissed shortly thereafter. He later referred to religion, with its repetitive practices, as the “universal obsessional neurosis.”
Sigmund Freud’s Life His father, Jacob, was raised an Orthodox Jew, but his religion faded as he aged. Jacob read from the Hebrew Old Testament, the Philippson Bible, and sent Freud a copy on his 35th birthday. Sigmund never learned Hebrew and knew only a little Yiddish. Jacob was a wool merchant, and the family relatively poor, moved to Leipzig when Sigmund was 3 yo, and then 1 yr later, to Vienna, Austria. Sigmund lived and worked in Vienna until 1932, when at the age of 82, he escaped to London to avoid the Nazi invasion.
Sigmund Freud’s Life In his teen years, Sigmund studied Judaism under Samuel Hammerschlag, a secular Jew who emphasized the historical and ethical side of Jewish history, rather than the religious aspects. At age 17, Sigmund entered the University of Vienna and was influenced by a philosophy professor, Franz Brentano, a former priest, who swayed Freud considerably toward a theistic worldview. A lifelong empiricist, Freud declared in a letter to a friend that, “He [Brentano] demonstrates the existence of God with as little bias and as much precision as another might argue the advantage of the wave over the emission theory… …I have ceased to be a materialist and am not yet a theist.” This inner ambivalence stayed with Freud his entire life, despite his public endorsements of atheism.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Freud began reading “The Essence of Christianity” by Ludwig Feuerbach and agreed with him that religion was the projection of human need and deep-seated wishes, that “the substance and object of religion is altogether human… divine wisdom is human wisdom… the secret of theology is anthropology…” Freud wrote in the “Future of an Illusion” that “We shall tell ourselves that it would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence…and an afterlife…but…all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.” Within the medical communities of Europe, there was a distinct disdain for the spiritual worldview an assumption that empiricism was the only way to discover truth.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Sigmund worked in the lab of Ernest Brucke, who asserted that no truth existed except that discernible by the scientific method. Vienna was >90% Catholic at the time. Freud faced anti-Semitism in his efforts to obtain a professorship at the University of Vienna, repeatedly being passed over for a post. He waited 17 years. The usual wait was 4 years. Medical journals at the time were filled with articles illustrating how “Jews were profoundly flawed… and predisposed to a host of illnesses.”
Sigmund Freud’s Life Jacob Freud told his son Sigmund a story when Sigmund was 10 yrs old about how an anti-Semite had knocked his cap off into the mud and shouted “Jew! Get off the pavement!” His father meekly went and picked up his cap and kept walking. To Sigmund that response was “unheroic conduct.” Sigmund fought real and perceived anti-Semitism all his life. On a train Freud was once called a “dirty Jew.” He describes being “not in the least frightened by the mob… I was quite prepared to kill him…”
Sigmund Freud’s Life On Easter Sunday in 1886, at the age of 30, Freud opened a private practice in neuropathology. On Sept. 13, 1886, he married Martha Bernays in a Town Hall in Germany, followed by a brief Jewish ceremony in the home of the bride. Jacob Freud died in Oct. 1896, and Sigmund, 40, described it as “the most poignant loss in a man’s life.” Despite viewing his father as a failure, the death struck him hard, it “has affected me profoundly… I feel quite uprooted.” Freud began his self-analysis and proposed the “Oedipus complex.”
Sigmund Freud’s Life Freud’s mother died in 1930, and he was surprisingly unemotional: “I was not at the funeral.” Freud and his family were exiled to London on June 6, 1938, fearing Nazi attacks on the Jews. He was made to sign a letter that he had been treated fairly by the Nazis prior to his departure. Freud died Sept. 23, 1939 at the age of 83. He had fought oral cancer for years, performing surgery on himself, using cocaine as an anesthetic. He convinced his personal physician, Dr. Max Schur, to administer 3 lethal doses of morphine, which led to his death.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Freud seemed to struggle between what his nanny had told him about having a “high opinion of his own capacities,” and the external world’s desire to prove him inferior. His ideas were new, daring and based on his scientific observations of human behavior. They were as rigorously scientific as technology at the time would allow. His theories threatened the dominant majority’s opinion of why humans behave the way they do.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Freud’s ego, while strong, was also easily threatened by others. Narcissism and shame are often closely wed. His friendships with colleagues were often strained as Freud found discussion and disagreements about his theories threatening (eg, the splits with Adler and Jung). Unfortunately, Freud’s superior intellect often left him with little regard for the opinions of others. “For the masses are lazy and unintelligent… …arguments are of no avail against their passions.” And, “…not all men are worthy of love.”
Sigmund Freud’s Life Freud published >200 scholarly works (articles, books, etc.). In 1910 he founded the International Psychoanalytical Association, and the journal “Imago” in 1912. Today Freud’s accomplishments are ranked with those of Planck and Einstein. He is listed as the 6th most influential scientist of all time. He won the prestigious “Goethe prize” in 1930, and his face is on the Austrian 50 shilling note. He was made an Honorary Member of the British Royal Society of Medicine in 1935. President Franklin Roosevelt helped broker his safe transfer to London in 1938. He has been on the cover of “Time” magazine 3 times: 1924, 1939, 1993.
Sigmund Freud’s Life Thanks in large part to Freud, it is now widely accepted that early relationships with parents and caregivers strongly impacts later psychological health. These early life relationships, as we will also see with C.S. Lewis, profoundly influence the development of one’s worldview.
C.S. Lewis’ Life Clive Staples Lewis was born November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland to Albert and Florence Lewis, who married August 29, 1894. Albert was Welsh in descent, and Florence, Scottish. His father worked practicing law in Belfast and was moody and emotional. His mother was cool and analytical. Lewis’ grandfather was vicar and preached at their local church. He would weep in the pulpit. Lewis’ father’s and grandfather’s emotionality bred in him a distrust for emotions and religion. He instead embraced a materialist worldview.
C.S. Lewis’ Life At age 4, Lewis informed his parents that he would go by the name “Jack.” At age 6, he first recognized beauty through creation—moss, twigs and flowers. He called it ‘joy’ and described it as a type of longing [which he eventually recognized was for a Person]. From ages 6-8, his older brother, Warren was off at boarding school. The cool, rainy, Belfast weather contributed to his desire to spend time indoors. Lewis lived almost entirely in his imagination: reading, drawing and writing stories.
C.S. Lewis’ Life At age 9, Lewis’ world was turned upside down when his grandfather died and then his mother became sick with cancer and died. He recalled her surgery in their home and having to observe her corpse—after praying to God for her healing. Albert Lewis decided he could not care adequately for the boys and sent them both off to boarding school. Lewis hated boarding school. The headmaster “Oldie” was cruel. He would beat the children mercilessly. He was eventually convicted of undue cruelty and his school shut down due to a lack of students. He was a clergyman in the Church of England, a fact that was not lost on Lewis.
C.S. Lewis’ Life Alone in those moments, Lewis would long for the holidays, much like one longed for heaven. He began to live by hope. At his second boarding school, he was comforted by the school Matron, Miss Cowie, a type of surrogate mother. She held and comforted the shy Lewis, as well as the other boys. She dabbled in the occult and shared it with the boys. At age 13, this served to snuff out any vestiges of faith that Lewis held onto. He also began reading classic literature where the authors assumed the illegitimacy of religion. She was eventually fired. Lewis was lonely and unhappy. He hated the snobbery of the boarding school community.
C.S. Lewis’ Life Lewis’ father relented, allowing him to be tutored by William T. Kirkpatrick, “The Great Knock,” an atheist who taught Lewis logic and critical thinking. Lewis considered Christianity one religious myth among many. It was the happiest time of Lewis’ life. He spent hours reading books of his own choosing. He read George MacDonald’s “Phantastes,” which replanted the seeds of the spiritual worldview. Lewis took the admission exam for Oxford University on December 4, 1916. He failed the math section, but was granted admittance through the Army Officer Training Corps.
C.S. Lewis’ Life Lewis became friends with Edward “Paddy” Moore in his Officers Training course. They agreed to care for each other’s parents if either of them were killed. Lewis arrived in the trenches of WWI on Nov. 29, 1917, on his 19th birthday. When Paddy was killed, Lewis took care of his mother until her death, calling her a surrogate mother. Lewis was wounded and returned to Oxford in 1919, spending the next 35 years there. After graduating in 1923, he taught philosophy for 1 year before accepting a fellowship in English literature at Magdalen College at Oxford in 1925.
C.S. Lewis’ Life Lewis corresponded with many people by letter. He began corresponding with Helen Joy Davidman Gresham, a poet from the United States. She was divorced and surprisingly came to England to meet Lewis in 1952. He was taken by her wit and intellect. They reportedly played scrabble together in 5 different languages. In 1956, at age 57, he married her, age 41. She was already diagnosed with bone cancer. It looked like she would die, but they prayed, and her cancer went into remission. They had several years of happy marriage together including a trip to Greece. She died in 1960. Her son, Douglas, was 14 at the time.
C.S. Lewis’ Life C.S. Lewis has been called by “Time” magazine, the most influential voice for the spiritual worldview, and graced its cover in 1947. He wrote >30 books including: “Surprised by Joy,” “Miracles,” “The Problem of Pain,” “A Grief Observed,” “The Screwtape Letters,” “Mere Christianity,” “The Great Divorce,” “The Abolition of Man,” “The Weight of Glory.” As a student at Oxford, he won a triple first, the highest honors in 3 areas of study. He was awarded the position of Chair in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Cambridge University. He was an immensely popular lecturer, filling lecture halls to standing room capacity.
C.S. Lewis’ Life “Oxford History of English Literature” (OHEL) “The Chronicles of Narnia” – books and movies. “Shadowlands” – movie and broadway play. The second most recognizable voice on the BBC during WWII, behind Winston Churchill.
Shadowlands Shadowlands Opened 10/8/07, Wyndham’s Theatre, London. Closed 2/23/08, Novello Theatre, London. William Nicholson’s play ‘Shadowlands’ is set in Oxford during the 1950s and is the moving true love story between C.S. Lewis and Helen Joy Davidman Gresham. Lewis had remained a confirmed bachelor until his fifties when he met and was enchanted by Joy Davidman, an American divorcee with 2 young children. They fell in love and were secretly married. Lewis’ ensuing encounter with love and suffering led him to reconsider many of the beliefs he had held so staunchly before their fateful meeting. “Why love if losing hurts so much? The pain now is part of the happiness then. That’s the deal.” --C.S. Lewis
