The Future of an Illusion (Broadview Editions) - Softcover

This new edition and translation of Sigmund Freud's The Future of an Illusion has much to recommend it. The Introduction, in particular, is a gem of insightful analysis of the conflicting motives and logical inconsistencies that characterize Freud's arguments in this controversial essay. In laying bare the contradictions inherent in this work, Dufresne brings a fresh and incisive understanding to a book that, despite well-justified skepticism about its scientific merits, remains a thought-provoking and quintessentially Freudian explication of religious belief." - Frank J. Sulloway, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend and Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. "This new Broadview Press edition is a wonderful example of rigorous and imaginative scholarly collaboration. Gregory Richter provides a lucid and lively translation, and some searching reflections on the problems of translation, while Todd Dufresne contextualizes Freud's puzzling, late life assault on organized religion, and his equivocal embrace of Enlightenment positivism. Oskar Pfister, one of the book's earliest and most cogent critics, is also discussed with admirable clarity and charm. Bravo!" - Daniel Burston, Duquesne University, and author of The Legacy of Erich Fromm "Gregory C. Richter's fluent new translation shows one of Freud's most popular books to be as clear, colloquial, and compelling as anything else by the master of psychoanalysis, and Todd Dufresne's entertaining introduction makes a good case for its surprising contemporary relevance, in spite of its often puzzling arguments." - Thomas Kemple, University of British Columbia

In 1927 Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, declared that religion is a universal obsessional neurosis. The Future of an Illusion provoked immediate controversy and has continued to be an important work for anyone interested in the intersection of psychology, religion, and culture. Included in this volume is Oskar Pfister's critical engagement with Freud's views on religion. Pfister, a Swiss pastor and lay analyst, defends mature religion from Freud's "scientism." Noted Freud scholar and editor Todd Dufresne provides a challenging cross-disciplinary introduction. All of Freud's and Pfister's texts have been beautifully updated in Gregory C. Richter's masterful translations from the original German.