Mothers, Infants, and the Psychoanalytic Study of Ritual

Abstract

Freud liked to compare his work to the archaeologist's task of looking for ancient foundations below contemporary structures.' His analogy gives us the essence of the psychoanalytic method, which is the search for the child's presence below the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the adult. In his later writings, Freud begins applying his method for unearthing facts about the individual psyche to the study of large-scale social realities. When turning his attention particularly to religion, he comes to the position that ritualistic behavior is neurotic and traces its genesis to the oedipal period of life, where neuroses originate. In Freud's view, the oedipal phase is primarily of interest for what it tells of the relationship between sons and their fathers. Therefore, he characteristically understands ritual, and religion in general, in terms of the struggle between fathers and sons. In Moses and Monotheism, for example, he traces the origins of Christianity to guilt over an ancient patricide; in Totem and Taboo, he theorizes that a totemic god has its source in a father whose sons have deified him.2 Having detected this link between ritual and oedipal conflict, Freud demonstrates the prominent role of anxiety, ambivalence, and aggression in ceremonial observance. Such a focus leads to conclusions that are insightful but limited; while, for instance, it highlights the ways in which gods and fathers resemble each other, it obscures or ignores the ways in which they differ. Freud's oedipal scheme also fails to account for the aspects of ritual Victor Turner calls liminal-the creative, spontaneous, and playful elements in rituals.