"This elegantly written and compelling comparison of the worldviews of Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis provides a riveting opportunity to consider the most important questions mankind has ever asked: Is there a God? Does he care about me? Thi

Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has an active practice as a psychiatrist and serves as a consultant to government groups, corporations, and professional athletes. He is married, with two children, and lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Prologue

1

(12)

PART ONE: WHAT SHOULD WE BELIEVE?

The Protagonists: The Lives of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis

13

(23)

The Creator: Is There an Intelligence Beyound the Universe?

36

(21)

Conscience: Is There a Universal Moral Law?

57

(19)

The Great Transition: Which Road to Reality?

76

(21)

PART TWO: HOW SHOULD WE LIVE?

Happiness: What Is the Source of Our Greatest Enjoyment in Life?

97

(29)

Sex: Is the Pursuit of Pleasure Our Only Purpose?

126

(34)

Love: Is All Love Sublimated Sex?

160

(27)

Pain: How Can We Resolve the Problem of Suffering?

187

(29)

Death: Is Death Our Only Destiny?

216

(24)

Epilogue

240

(5)

Notes

245

(37)

Bibliography

282

(4)

Acknowledgments

286

(1)

Index

287

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Prologue On the morning of September 26, 1939, at Golders Green in northwest London, a group of friends and family gathered to mourn the death of Sigmund Freud. After his body was cremated, Ernest Jones, in his funeral oration, noted that "he was being buried...[as] he would have wished...in sheer simplicity, without a note of pomp or ceremony." Stefan Zweig, the author, closed his remarks by predicting that "wherever we seek to advance into the labyrinth of the human heart, henceforth his intellectual light will shine upon our path."The front page of the SundayNew York Timesdeclared in a headline: "Dr. Sigmund Freud Dies in Exile at 83." And in the subheadlines: "Founder of Psychoanalysis...Succumbs at His Home Near London." The article described his recent escape from the Nazis, who burned his books, dismissed his theories as pornographic, and demanded a ransom for his freedom. It also mentioned Freud's "worldwide fame and greatness," referring to him as "one of the most widely discussed scientists," mentioning that "he set the entire world talking about psychoanalysis" and noting that his ideas had already permeated our culture and language.As a young teenager, Freud demonstrated academic brilliance, ranking at the top of his class for seven years and graduatingsumma cum laudefrom the "Gymnasium." He entered the University of Vienna when seventeen years old, read widely in several languages, conducted research, and studied subjects ranging from physics to philosophy.Today historians rank Freud's scientific contributions with those of Planck and Einstein. He appears on most lists of the greatest physicians in history. He was recently on the cover ofTime(with Albert Einstein) for an issue dedicated to the greatest scientific minds of the century and ranked sixth in a book on the hundred most influential scientists. Yet if Freud's fame and influence have continued to grow since his death more than sixty years ago, so have the criticism and the controversy surrounding him. He persists in spite of it all. Freud's photo graces Austrian currency. His ideas remain permanently embedded in our culture and our language.We use terms such asego, repression, complex, projection, inhibition, neurosis, psychosis, resistance, sibling rivalry,andFreudian slipwithout even realizing their source. Freud's model of the mind is still perhaps the most developed of all. Of the more than one hundred forms of psychotherapy, many continue to use one or another of Freud's concepts. Perhaps most important of all, his theories influence how we interpret human behavior, not only in biography, literary criticism, sociology, medicine, history, education, and ethics -- but also in the law. We now take for granted the basic psychoanalytic concept that our early life experiences strongly influence how we think, feel, and behave as adults. Because of the unmistakable impact of his thought, some scholars refer to the twentieth century as the "century of Freud."As part of his intellectual legacy, Freud strongly advocated an atheistic philosophy of life. He referred to this view as the "scientificWeltanschauung."Freud also waged a fierce, ongoing battle against the spiritual worldview that he referred to as "the religiousWeltanschauung."Freud's philosophical writings, more widely read than his expository or scientific works, have played a significant role in the secularization of our culture. In the seventeenth century people turned to the discoveries of astronomy to demonstrate what they considered the irreconcilable conflict between science and faith; in the eighteenth century, to Newtonian physics; in the nineteenth century, to Darwin; in the twentieth century and still today, Freud is the atheist's touchstone. * * * Twenty-four years after Freud's death, on the morning of November 26, 1963, at Oxford, England, northwest of London, a group of