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‌‌‌‌  英:religion; 法:religion

‌‌‌‌  弗洛伊德曾宣布放弃了其父母的犹太教信仰(尽管并非是他的犹太人身份),并且把自己看作一位无神论者。虽然他把各种一神论形式的宗教皆看作文明状态高度发展的标志,然而他认为所有的宗教皆是文化进步的障碍,并因而指出应当放弃宗教而支持科学 (SCIENCE)。弗洛伊德认为,宗教都是试图通过“对于现实的一种妄想性改造”而保护自身免遭苦难,他因而总结说它们“必须被归入人类的集体妄想的等级”(Freud, 1930a: SE XXI, 81)。他把上帝的观念看作对于一位保护性父亲的幼儿式渴望的表达 (Freud, 1927c: SE XXI, 22-4), 并且把宗教描述为“一种普遍的强迫型神经症”(Freud, 1907b: SEX, 126-7).

‌‌‌‌  拉康也把自己视作一位无神论者,他同样宣布放弃了其父母的天主教信仰 (然而,拉康的弟弟作为一名本笃会修道士而度过了自己生命中的大部分时间)。同弗洛伊德一样,他也把宗教对立于科学,并且把精神分析结盟于后者 (S11,265)。拉康根据宗教、巫术、科学和精神分析与作为原因的真理之间的不同关系而把它们区分了开来,他由此提出宗教即否认作为主体之原因的真理 (Ec, 872), 并且指出祭祀仪式的作用乃在于诱惑上帝,即唤起他的欲望 (S11,113)。他宣称无神论的真正公式并非“上帝已死”而是“上帝即无意识”(S11,59), 同时他还响应了弗洛伊德的评论,强调在那些宗教性实践与强迫型神经症之间存在诸多相似之处(S7,130).

‌‌‌‌  除了有关宗教概念的这些评论之外,拉康的话语中也充斥着各种借鉴自基督教神学的隐喻。最明显的例子当然就是父亲的名义 (NAME-OF-THE-FATHER)这一措辞,拉康采纳它来表示一个基本能指,将其排除即会导致精神病。然而,这远远不是唯一的例子。因而,那些由象征界所造成的改变便是根据创世论而非根据进化论来描述的,尽管拉康又悖论性地指出,这种创世论实际上是“允许我们得以瞥见把上帝根本消灭的可能性”的唯一视角(S7,213)。在1972一1973年度的研讨班上,他把“上帝”这一术语用作对于大他者的隐喻,并且把女性的“享乐”比作像阿维拉的圣特蕾莎 (St. Teresa of Avila)修女这样的基督教神秘主义者们所体验到的那种出神(S20,70-1)。

‌‌‌‌  (religion) Freud renounced the Jewish religion of his parents (though not his Jewishidentity) and considered himself an atheist. While he regarded monotheistic forms ofreligion as the sign of a highly developed state of civilisation, he nevertheless thoughtthat all religions were barriers to cultural progress, and thus argued that they should beabandoned in favour of SCIENCE. Freud argued that religions were an attempt to protectoneself against suffering by 'a delusional remoulding of reality', and thus concluded thatthey 'must be classed among the mass-delusions'of humankind (Freud, 1930a: SE XXI, 81). He saw the idea of God as an expression of infantile longing for a protective father (Freud, 1927c: SE XXI, 22-4), and described religion as 'a universal obsessionalneurosis' (Freud, 1907b: SE IX, 126-7).

‌‌‌‌  Lacan too considers himself an atheist, having renounced the Catholic religion of hisparents (Lacan's brother, however, spent most of his life as a Benedictine monk). Like Freud he opposes religion to science, and aligns psychoanalysis with the latter (S11,265). Distinguishing religion from magic, science and psychoanalysis on the basis of theirdifferent relations to truth as cause, Lacan presents religion as a denial of the truth ascause of the subject (Ec, 872), and argues that the function of sacrificial rites is to seduce God, to arouse his desire (S11,113). He states that the true formula of atheism is not Godis dead but God is unconscious (S11,59) and echoes Freud's remarks about similaritiesbetween religious practices and obsessional neurosis (S7,130).

‌‌‌‌  Beyond these remarks on the concept of religion, Lacan's discourse abounds inmetaphors drawn from Christian theology. The most obvious example is surely thephrase the NAME-OF-THE-FATHER, which Lacan adopts to denote a fundamentalsignifier whose foreclosure leads to psychosis. However, this is far from the onlyexample. Thus the changes wrought by the symbolic are described in creationist ratherthan evolutionary terms, although paradoxically Lacan argues that this creationism isactually the only perspective that 'allows one to glimpse the possibility of the radicalelimination of God' (S7,213). In the seminar of 1972-3 he uses the term 'God'as ametaphor for the big Other, and compares feminine jouissance to the ecstasy experiencedby Christian mystics such as St Teresa of Avila (S20,70-1).