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ularly inclined to believe in telepathy or thought transference, and often referred to its possibility; however, in public—in his scientific writings—only his skeptical position was expressed.
Freud did acknowledge, in an essay written with the express purpose of interpreting rationally and hence “debunking” belief in spirits, that at times he found himself believing in them: “Consider now the fact that belief in spirits, apparitions and returning souls, which finds so much support in the religions to which, at least as children, we [!] have all clung, has by no means entirely vanished among all educated people.”150 Jones, who quotes this, goes on to describe how taken aback Freud was on encountering the sister of a dead patient, whom she closely resembled. Freud said that he thought to himself, “so after all it is true that the dead may return.”151 If part of Freud could believe in telepathy, poltergeists, and the returning spirits of the dead, then part of him could certainly believe in the Devil. Freud and the Anti-ChristFreud’s memory slip with respect to the Signorelli frescos has been introduced earlier (see Chapter Three), but it turns out that this incident is rich in connections to Christianity, and I return to it here. Freud’s own analysis of his inability to remember the name of this artist was not just a trivial lapse; rather, within psychoanalysis, it is considered to be “the prime specimen of a ‘Freudian slip.’”152 Much of its deeper psychological and some of its important religious significance has been identified by the psychoanalyst Schimek, and in this treatment I draw on his insights. To set the stage, the reader should look at these frescos, found in the exquisite small cathedral (duomo) at Orvieto (Figure 5-5); details of the frescos are shown in Figures 5-6, 5-7, and 5-8. Now Freud could not remember the artist’s name. His closest association was “Botticelli”; he had the last part right but missed the crucial first part, “Signor.” Zilboorg,153 as mentioned above, sees this as evidence of Freud’s repression of God’s name: “Signor” and “Herr.” Schimek, though unaware of Zilboorg’s earlier short discussion, comes to the same conclusion as part of his deeper theoretical analysis. Freud explained his lapse by associations to the place to which he was traveling, Herzogovina.154 “Herzogovina” he connected to “Herr Doktor”—that is, the “Lord Doctor,” but not the “Lord God.” He also associated this country with the Turks, and with an anecdote about the alleged great importance attached to sexuality by these people (exemplified by the belief that it is better to die than to lose one’s capacity for sex). All this reminded Freud of a recent unpleasant message from one of his |