Chapter 3. Moses His People and Monotheist Religion of Moses and Monotheism - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

Freud proposes that one of these instincts, is that men have always known (in this special way) that they once possessed a primal father and killed him. Under what conditions does a memory of this kind enter the archaic heritage? If the event was important or repeated enough. And, in what circumstances can it become active - i.e. advance to consciousness from its unconscious state in the id, even though in an altered and distorted shape? A whole number of influences may be concerned, not all of which are necessarily known.

Finally, a tradition that was based only on communication could not lead to the compulsive character that attaches to religious phenomena - therefore it must have undergone the fate of being repressed, the condition of lingering in the unconscious, before it is able to display such powerful effects on its return - a consideration that heavily supports the role of inheritance of such factors.

Part II

Summary and Recapitulation

Freud, here apologises and explains that the part to follow is in may places a repetition of the previous part, since he wrote this essay twice, once in Vienna, several years previously and now when in England. Therefore, whilst he thought it important to acknowledge any resultant changes in his mode of thought, he also accepts that this leads to a lot of repetition also.

A. The People of Israel

Here Freud looks at the characteristics of the Jewish race, which have led them to be the only people from antiquity that still exist in name and substance. There is not doubt they have a high opinion of themselves, regarding themselves as distinguished, superior to other peoples, not only by virtues but also by their customs. The reason for this behaviour is that they believe that they stand especially close to God, as his 'chosen people'. The man Moses imprinted this idea of favouritism upon the Jewish people and therefore as such, Moses created the Jews.

B. The Great Man

Here Freud asks how it is possible for a single man to evolve such extraordinary effectiveness. Most events can be traced to a cause or various convergent ones. So it seems most plausible that the great man Moses was simply a place in the network of causes. How do we define a man as great? It seems that Freud looks more to the affect he has on his fellow men, then at his individual attributes per se. He proposes that a great man influences his fellow men in two ways: by his personality and by the idea(s) which he puts forward. Furthermore, great men tend to fill a paternal role, showing decisiveness of thought, strength of will, and energy of action. Thus the image of the man Moses was probably hugely intertwined with his people's image of God. However in recalling that this father figure, Moses, was himself once a child, taking over the religion from Akhenaten, we see that the monotheistic idea was not original but merely returning to its land of origin. However a clear and important legacy that the great man Moses was able to leave, was in the ability of the Jews to produce so many individuals prepared to take on the burden of the religion of Moses, in return for the reward of being the chosen people.

C. The Advance in Intellectuality

In order to bring about lasting psychical results in a people, it is clearly not enough to assure them that they have been chosen by the deity. The fact must be proved to them in some way if they are to believe it and to draw consequences from the belief. The Passover commemoration feast was introduced probably with this in mind. However a key factor in the intellectual development of Jews, Freud argues, is that precept of the Moses religion that prohibits making an image of God - the compulsion to worship a God whom one cannot see. This serves the role of both goading activity away from magical abuses and also maintained in Jews their intellectual inclination. The nation's political misfortune taught it to value at its true worth, the one possession that remained to it, its literature. From the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by Titus, the Holy Writ and intellectual concern with it were what held the scattered people together.

D. Renunciation of Instinct

Freud returns to the idea of the id and instincts. If the id in a human being gives rise to an instinctual demand of an erotic or aggressive nature, the simplest and most natural thing is that the ego, which has the apparatus of thought and the muscular apparatus at its disposal, should satisfy the demand by an action. This satisfaction of the instinct is felt by the ego as pleasure. If the ego perceives that the action in question would provoke a serious danger to the ego, the instinct is renunciated, but as an