Exploring the historical and psychosocial evolution of religiosity, this book delves into anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives to analyze the roots of religious beliefs. It particularly focuses on the more extreme manifestations of faith, including fanaticism and fundamentalism, offering insights into how these expressions develop and impact individuals and societies.
The book delves into the concept of wish-fulfillment as a central theme in classical psychoanalysis, highlighting Freud's view of its connection to dreams, fantasies, and various psychological symptoms. It emphasizes the neglect of this concept in later psychoanalytic discourse while showcasing its resurgence in contemporary philosophy. The exploration reveals how wish-fulfillment serves as an explanatory model for irrational behaviors, offering insights relevant to psychiatry, social psychology, and the philosophy of mind.
Religion, Narcissism and Fanaticism traces the historical and psychosocial development of religiosity and applies anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives to the understanding of religions, particularly their fanatical and fundamentalist expressions.