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Freud on Femininity and Faith
By Judith Van Herik
Berkeley, University of California Press,
1982. 216 pp. $24.50 ($8.95).

A sophisticated and rigorous argument regarding the inner logic of Freud's thought, revealing homologies between Freud's asymmetrical theory of gender development, his patricentric theory of culture, his valuation of renunciation of illusion over wish fulfillment, and his psychology of religion, this tightly argued monograph links two genres of scholarship on Freud that have previously remained isolated: studies of Freud's theory of sex differences and gender development, and studies of Freud's theory of religion. Van Herik integrates these in a creative synthesis, arguing that Freud's theory of religion is deeply informed by his theory of gender. But she also does something more. She interprets

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Freud as a "theorist of culture," thereby placing herself within a third genre of Freud scholarship. Here she writes in the tradition of such scholars as Philip Rieff, Paul Ricoeur, Peter Homans, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the Freudian corpus is a theory of the dynamics of cultural formation.

Van Herik's aim is to reveal how Freud's evaluation of religion is actually grounded in his analysis of the formation, within the dynamics of the Oedipus complex, of gender differences (mental, not biological, femininity and masculinity). She argues, first, that in Freud's theory as a whole, renunciation and fulfillment are central interpretive categories. Renunciation is viewed as the source of such intellectual and moral achievements as scientific attitude, ethical behavior, reality principle thinking, and the therapeutic ideal, rational autonomy. Conversely, for Freud, fulfillment of wishes obstructs such achievements. She then points out Freud's linkage of masculinity with renunciation, and femininity with wish fulfillment: "the development of mental masculinity occurs through a series of renunciations of attachments, particularly of attachments to fathers … whereas [in] the development of femininity … fulfillments are received from paternal figures." Finally, she examines Freud's use of the categories of renunciation and wish fulfillment in his evaluation of religious belief. In The Future of an Illusion, she demonstrates, Christianity is presented as wish fulfillment, and in Moses and Monotheism, Judaism is presented as renunciatory. Thus, on the one hand, she finds analogies between renunciation, Mosaic religion, and mental masculinity; and, on the other hand, between wish fulfillment, Christianity, and mental femininity.

The author is not simply concerned with describing these analogies. Rather, she is interested in Freud's asymmetrical evaluation of renunciation and wish fulfillment. From the higher valuation of renunciation as the process leading to cultural achievement, Van Herik draws several conclusions. First, for Freud, Mosaic religion is valued over Christianity as an intermediate step toward the renunciatory ideal of post-religious rationality. Second, Freud's analysis of gender differentiation contains a critique of femininity as falling short of the human (and masculine) renunciatory ideal. Third, the asymmetrical and value-laden understanding of gender underlies Freud's theory as a whole. His pejorative view of femininity is intrinsic to his thought rather than an incidental part of his texts.

Van Herik's position vis à vis feminism requires clarification. She ambiguously identifies her project as both feminist and non-feminist. She points out that her central conclusions are "not particularly feminist or antifeminist; they are claims about the critical structure of Freud's thought rather than about desirable or just situations for women," and adds that her book is "not feminist in the political sense of calling for alternatives to gender asymmetry in psyches, in society, or in theory." She does, however, understand her inquiry methodologically as a contribution to feminist scholarship, that is, in her examination of the

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pervasive misogyny-she prefers the term gender asymmetry-in Freud's thought. In seeming contradiction, she also sees her work as a contribution to a feminist agenda that is political as well as methodological. She argues that gender differentiation is so deeply rooted in culture that androcentrism influences our very categories of thought. Thus, she says, a (politically) feminist position must call for an analysis of both gender differentiation and the "mental bases of culture" in order to move toward not only a redistribution of gender-associated functions, but also toward a transformation of the mental bases of culture itself.

This lack of clarity concerning the feminist stance of the book is reflected in the title as well. The reference to femininity in the title implies a closer link with feminist critiques of Freud; the reference to faith is paradoxical since Freud rarely used the term (the categories he applied to religion were belief, image of God, morality, and the like). Perhaps a more accurate, but less alliterative, title would be "Freud on Gender Asymmetry and Religion," or better, "Renunciation and Fulfillment: Gender and Religion in Freud's Texts." Faith is really not the focus, and femininity is only half of the story. Despite these ambiguities, however, Van Herik's thesis will be of great interest to feminist scholars. She takes important steps toward an understanding of the devaluation of femininity in Freud's thought and in patriarchal culture in general, raising significant questions about the place of gender in cultural valuation and about how gender and religion are intertwined.

In Van Herik's discussion of the asymmetrically valued polarities, masculinity/ femininity, Judaism/Christianity, and renunciation/ fulfillment, in Freud's texts, a major lacuna emerges. Although she claims that these polarities extend through all of Freud's writings on religion, she examines only The Future of an Illusion and Moses and Monotheism. In actuality, Freud's studies of religion span his entire career, and Van Herik's neat polarities crumble in an examination of other texts. In Civilization and its Discontents, for example, Christianity is not only described as fulfillment, but also as renunciation. Freud attacks the Christian ethical dictum "Love thy neighbor as thyself" as overly renunciatory on the grounds that it is unrealistic, oppressive, and unnecessarily guilt-producing. Van Herik neglects Civilization and its Discontents, Totem and Taboo, and other texts on religion which might reveal a more complex picture of the assumptions underlying Freud's psychology of religion.

The full implications of Van Herik's theory, particularly in the areas of the psychology of gender and the psychology of religion remain to be explored. She begins to pursue the implications of her analysis for the psychology of gender by suggesting that one cannot peel off layers of Freudian misogyny to reveal an underlying egalitarian psychology. She does not address the question of whether a non-reductionistic theory of religion is likewise impossible. Her discussion, however, implies that the denigration of religion and wish fulfillment are so central to Freud's thought that a psychoanalytic theory valuing religion is logically incon

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ceivable. Her argument remains entirely internal to the Freudian corpus and does not extend to later writings in psychoanalytic theory. However, if Van Herik's argument can be extended to post-Freudian work, the implications for recent work within psychoanalytic object-relations theory or self psychology may be highly problematic. Here, Freud's categories of fulfillment and renunciation are being re-evaluated: fulfillment and illusion are seen as a source of, rather than an obstacle to, cultural achievement. Psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut, for example, views early narcissistic fulfillment as crucial to the later development of' wisdom, creativity, and empathy ("Forms and Transformations of Narcissism," Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1966, pp. 243-272). One wishes for a further chapter examining the implications of Van Herik's argument for post-Freudian psychoanalytic theories of gender and religion, renunciation and fulfillment.

These limitations and ambiguities, however, do not detract from the overall significance of Van Herik's work. She has created an important and provocative analysis of Freud's ideas. This is an exciting, challenging study of the internal structure of Freud's thought, of his psychology of culture, his psychology of gender, and his psychology of religion. It is a study that will continue to be influential for many years to come.

Diane Jonte-Pace
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, California