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This kind of interpretation of religion served to solidify Freud’s well-known conscious and rational
rejection of Christianity. In fact, the Feuerbachian analysis is the origin of much of Freud’s critique
that religion is a projection of human needs. A work like The Future of an Illusion, written many
decades later, is essentially an elaboration of Feuerbach.14 (See Chapter Seven.)
But, as always, Freud’s ambivalence was also present at this time. In Gedo and Wolf’s summary of short excerpts of the Fluss letters they note (among other things) the following Old Testament or religious references in these letters, all made from September 1872 through June 1873: “the cup runneth over,” “the inscrutable workings of a divine power,” and “with fear and trembling.”75 Gedo and Wolf do not mention, however, the fact that “with fear and trembling” also occurs four times in the New Testament Pauline Epistles, as in to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”71 Other references noted by Gedo and Wolf include “an angel with a fiery sword,” “a Tower of Babel,” and “find…favor in my eyes.”77 Finally, there is a very Catholic (and surprising) quotation, which Freud picked up somehow from the Mass of the Dead: “There comes the day, the longest day, when….”78 University Years: 1873-1882In choosing to go into medicine, Freud made the decision to move toward science, and (professionally at least) to allow his literary interests and talents to be put largely aside. He began his studies at the University of Vienna in the fall of 1873. He finished his course work in four years, but did not officially complete his degree until 1881.71 Much of the latter four years (1877-1881) was spent in extensive laboratory study and research. During this time Freud thoroughly immersed himself in the world of medical research—in particular, in physiology and anatomy.80 The period of Freud’s academic studies was very much under the general influence of such world-famous scientists as Helmholtz, Darwin, Fechner, and (in Vienna) the renowned Ernst Brücke.81 It was a time of great enthusiasm for science—an enthusiasm permeated by an ideological commitment to materialism, rationalism, and determinism. (This ideological kind of science is known as “scientism.”) As a student and young scientist, Freud imbibed much of this attitude, and it was one that in important respects remained with him all his life. He would often discard or ignore important aspects of this “philosophy” when it came to developing his own theories, but he kept a 19th-century scientific world-view as a general position that he hoped or assumed would someday be found to underlie psychoanalysis. This heavily materialistic and determi- |