Freud's Last Session (PDF) - Arizona Theatre Company

FREUD VS. LEWIS: A BATTLE OF QUOTESON INSTINCT:“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the factthat it falls in with our instinctual desires.” – Sigmund Freud“Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‘people.’People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are atwar... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratifiedat the expense of the rest.” – C.S. LewisON HAPPINESS:“One feels inclined to say that the intention that man shouldbe ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of ‘Creation.’”– Sigmund Freud“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself,because it is not there. There is no such thing.” – C.S. LewisBenjamin Evett and J. Michael Flynn debating as Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis inATC’s production of Freud’s Last Session. Photo by Kevin Berne.ON GOD:“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”– Sigmund Freud“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worshipHim than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word,‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” – C.S. LewisBenjamin Evett and J. Michael Flynn debating as Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis inATC’s production of Freud’s Last Session. Photo by Kevin Berne.ON RELIGION:“If one wishes to form a true estimate of the full grandeur ofreligion, one must keep in mind what it undertakes to do formen. It gives them information about the source and origin ofthe universe, it assures them of protection and final happinessamid the changing vicissitudes of life, and it guides theirthoughts and motions by means of precepts which are backedby the whole force of its authority.”– Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud Memorial, Hampstead, North London.“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: notonly because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”– C.S. Lewis13