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About this quote

What does it mean?
Freud viewed God as a projection of the father figure.
In plain terms
God is just a very powerful father in our minds.
What can you take from it?
See religion as a projection of human needs.

Where it applies

  • theology
  • therapy
  • spiritual crisis

Putting it to work

  • analyze personal faith
  • explore family roots

Questions to consider

  • What does God mean to you?
  • How does your father shape your view?

Another view

Not all believers accept psychological explanations.

More from Sigmund Freud

  1. Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.

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  2. He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betray…

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  3. No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come thro…

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