sized his proposed female and male sexual periods of 28 and 23 days, respectively, while Freud turned to sexual experiences in childhood between the ages of two and four. Freud analyzed dreams and fantasies, but Fliess seems to have had no real interest in these phenomena. In short, these were very different ways to approach sexuality, and therefore I conclude that the major effect of cocaine was to accentuate or heighten Freud’s pre-existing thought patterns and psychological preoccupations. At times, cocaine may have distorted his reactions; for example, it may have made his depressions darker and harder to fight. But cocaine did not create the primary content and structure of Freud’s mind and thought. (The question of whether Freud’s theories are correct is also one that Thornton addresses extensively. This issue, however important in its own right, is not of concern here; instead, the present discussion is focused on understanding the origin and nature of Freud’s thought with respect to religion, especially Christianity. The question of the validity of Freud’s theories is treated only with respect to his interpretation of religion, and then only in the last chapter of this book.)
Milton’s Paradise LostIn 1907, Freud received a letter in which he was asked to name “ten good books.” In his response,72 Freud noted that he was not asked to name the ten greatest books, in which category he would put the tragedies of Sophocles, Goethe’s Faust, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth. Nor was the request for significant books, like Darwin’s Origin of Species. Nor again was he asked for his favorite books; nonetheless, he provided the titles of the two works that he termed his “favorites.” (No other titles were mentioned as favorites.) These two, which presumably were those he found the most personally satisfying, were Milton’s Paradise Lost and Heine’s Lazarus. Let us look briefly at the former. (The Lazarus poems are discussed in Chapter Six.) Paradise Lost is, of course, a Christian classic by a great English Puritan, with a theme identified in the title. It is the story, first, of the revolt of Satan and his banishment from Heaven, then of the fall of man and his expulsion from Paradise (Eden). About this work, Freud, as a young man, wrote to Martha: I don’t know how it came about, but today I was thinking that everyone ought to have someone great and powerful to be his lord and protector, to whom he could turn in dark, heavy hours. I reached out for John Milton, with his sublime enchantment that can transport me as nothing else can from the dull, unsatisfying world of daily care, so that the earth becomes like a little dot in the universe, and the vast heavens open.73 |