THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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ontogenetic and phylogenetic residues of early human development. At this point, a brief
outline of Freud's general assertions about religion will be presented. Pertinent issues
arising from this will be discussed more comprehensively in later sections.
Freud begins with the assumption that deities are psychological, rather than supernatural
realities. Religious beliefs and practices, therefore, may be completely understood in
terms of secular psychological theory: "I believe that a large part of the mythological
view of the world, which extends a long way into the most modem religions, is nothing
but psychology projected into the external world" (Freud, 190 I, p. 258).
A second assumption is that the psychological processes which initiate and sustain
religious belief are not consciously evident to the believers, however much they may
rationalise their faith. In other words, whatever conscious religious beliefs people might
hold, the origin of these beliefs is essentially unconscious: "In all believers ... the motives
which impel them to religious practices are unknown to them" (Freud, 1907, p. 122-3).
Freud's third assumption is that religion provides the link between individual psychology
and institutional beliefs and practices. Religious myths and rituals are purported to be the
cultural or collective expression of the same unconscious dynamics found in the dreams
and neurotic symptoms ofindividuals (Preus, 1987).
The fourth assumption begins with Freud's developmental premise that adult psychic life
can be understood only in the context of childhood emotional conflict and maturation.
The dynamics common to adult psychology, individual religious belief, and organised
religion derive originally from the complex unconscious interactions between childhood
impulses, conflicts, anxieties, and psychological defences.
7.1.1 Infantile helplessness as the unconscious source of religious belief
The elements common to adult psychology, individual religious belief, and religious
ritual stem from the universal phenomenon of infantile helplessness. According to Freud,