[Hac-announce] November 2016 Book Discussion: "The Future of an Illusion" by Sigmund Freud - Note Selection Change

[Kevin Gough or Paula Jones]

Our book for November is The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. The discussion will take place Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 2 pm in the library of the Unitarian Society of New Haven at 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.










 

>From Wikipedia:

The Future of an Illusion (German: Die Zukunft einer Illusion) is a 1927 work by Sigmund Freud, describing his interpretation of religion's origins, development, psychoanalysis, and its future. Freud viewed religion as a false belief system.










Freud defines religion as an illusion, consisting of "certain dogmas, assertions about facts and conditions of external and internal reality which tells one something that one has not oneself discovered, and which claim that one should give them credence."...Psychologically speaking, these beliefs present the phenomena of wish fulfillment, "fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind."

Freud's description of religious belief as a form of illusion is based on the idea that it is derived from human wishes with no basis in reality. He says, "Thus we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by verification."

In Freud's words "The gods retain the threefold task: they must exorcise the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them."

"Sigmund Freud...declared that religion is a universal obsessional neurosis in [t]his famous work...[which] provoked immediate controversy and has continued to be an important reference for anyone interested in the intersection of philosophy, psychology, religion, and culture." - Broadview Press

This much-referenced but seldom-read book is readily available in numerous libraries around the state, particularly in collections of Freud's writings.

Note: This selection is a change from our previously announced schedule. I should have been more careful when choosing Gustave Flaubert's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" - while the book is available in collections of Flaubert's works (as I noted), the specific translation - the prose version by Lufcadio Hearn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn) is not. We want to read the Modern Library Classics version (http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/50251/the-temptation-of-saint-anthony-by-gustave-flaubert-translated-by-lafcadio-hearn-introduction-by-michel-foucault/9780375759123/) which, strangely, is not available at any CT library! We likely will come back to this work in 2017 if we can obtain copies of the book.

Refreshments will be served. 



 
Also, we are still taking suggestion for the reading list for 2017. Let me know (in person or via e-mail at kvngough at aol.com) if you have a title you think the group would enjoy. Thanks!





























































































































































































































































The book is readily available in numerous libraries around the state.










 
Refreshments will be served.

 






 



 

 
 

 



































































 





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