PSYCHOANALYTIC REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE SUBJECT’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyze, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the relationship between the subject and his God to the extent that this is directly related to the very functioning of his psyche. In other words, for psychoanalysis the origin of this relationship is in the subject himself. In this sense, we will briefly portray the path taken by Freud regarding the passage from animism to religions and the importance of totemism as an example for what psychoanalysis called symbolic register. This record makes it possible to think the (F)ather as a metaphor and, therefore, place God in the symbolic place of the Father of all, omnipotent, omnipresent, who protects and at the same time punishes those who disobey his laws. The relationship with the Law internalized by the paternal metaphor is the fundamental mark of the neurotic structure that needs to manage the conflict between desires and deprivations. Finally, we move forward with the notion of Das Ding presented by Freud and developed by Lacan and which represents the reunion with what has always been lost. The subject will achieve some type of relationship with Das Ding through fantasy – an imaginary resource that covers the impossible with possibilities such as salvation, eternal life and many other divine promises.