For more than 30
years, Armand J. Nicholi Jr., MD, a noted psychiatrist at Harvard Medical
School, has studied the published and unpublished writings and private
letters of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and of CS Lewis, the
most influential spokesperson for the spiritual worldview in the 20th
century. Nicholi teaches a popular course to Harvard undergraduates that
compares the contrasting worldviews of these two men. Dr. Nicholi has now
made the material taught in this course available to all of us in the form
of a recently published book entitled “The
Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and
the Meaning of Life” (2002)
that addresses the ultimate question of belief and unbelief. In the few
minutes we have together I want to share some thoughts from that book and
from interviews with Nicholi. I hope that in these comments is a "pearl of
wisdom" that will be of value to each of you.
Freud demonstrated
his academic brilliance by entering the University of Vienna when seventeen
- having read widely in several languages, conducted research, and studied
subjects from physics to philosophy. Today historians rank Freud’s
scientific contributions with those of Max Planck and Albert Einstein. We
use terms such as ego, repression, complex, projection, inhibition,
neurosis, psychosis, sibling rivalry, and Freudian slip without realizing
their source. Freud’s model of the mind is one of the most developed of all
theories on that topic. As part of his intellectual legacy Freud strongly
advocated an atheistic worldview, and, he waged a fierce, ongoing battle
against the spiritual worldview. In his scholarly works, his autobiography,
and his letters, Freud refers to himself as “an atheist,” “a godless medical
man,”, and “an unbeliever.”
Lewis began his
brilliant academic career as an undergraduate student at Oxford where he won
a “triple first” – highest honors in three academic fields: Greek and Latin
texts, classical philosophy, and English language and literature. After
finishing his studies, Lewis stayed on at Oxford as a member of the
faculty. For the next thirty years he taught philosophy and then English
language and literature. Lewis embraced an atheistic worldview for the
first half of his life and used Freud’s reasoning to defend his atheism.
Lewis resisted God because he wanted to be left alone. He eventually
rejected atheism and became a believer in Christ. Lewis wrote that “the
immediate human causes of my conversion” were the friendship and testimony
of his Christian colleagues at Oxford, Hugh Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien. He
wrote philosophical and apologetic works about faith in Christ, such as
Miracles, The Problem of Pain, The Abolition of Man, and Mere
Christianity. He wrote imaginative books on faith, including The
Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce, as well as a series of
seven stories for children collected together as The Chronicles of Narnia.
His works in English literature are still widely read.
During their
lifetime, Freud and Lewis each made brilliant and lasting arguments, one in
favor of belief in God and the other opposed. Both thought carefully about
the flaws and alternatives to their positions; in their writings each
considered the other’s views. Whenever Freud raised an argument against the
spiritual worldview, Lewis would respond to it.
Despite his forceful
rejection of religion, Freud could not stop writing about the very
phenomenon he supposedly found so absurd. Nicholi points out that in his
private letters Freud admired and often quoted the apostle Paul, spoke of
prayer and the providence of God, and expressed a spiritual yearning. Lewis
would argue that such religious longings suggest a belief in the existence
of God.
In addition to what
we can learn about their worldviews from their writings, Lewis' and Freud's
worldviews are revealed in how they lived their lives and how they
confronted their own deaths.
Freud evidenced a
pessimistic view of the future and an enormous preoccupation with, and fear
of, death. He was superstitious about when he was going to die. He would
check into a hotel and be given room 41; after that he was sure that he
would die at the age of 41. When he didn't die at 41, he'd come across a new
phone number and be absolutely sure he would die in the year mentioned in
the number. His official biographer said when Freud was still young, he
would shake hands and say, "Goodbye, you may never see me again." The last
book Freud read on the day he chose to die by euthanasia was Balzac’s The
Fatal Skin in which the hero makes a pact with the devil. The literary
work that he quoted most frequently was Goethe’s Faust. In both
Faust and The Fatal Skin the main character, a man of science,
depressed over his lack of recognition and success, considers suicide. A
self-described “unbelieving fatalist” Freud, suffering from cancer and, at
his own request, was injected with two centigrams of morphine, a heavy dose
that was repeated after 12 hours. At 3 am on September 23, 1939, Freud died
at age 83.
Although Lewis was
despondent before his conversion, after his conversion to Christianity he
actually looked forward to the time when he would enter into the life that
he felt every believer had waiting. Even at the end, he was cheerful and
outgoing, and said, "Why shouldn't we look forward to that time without
people thinking we're morbid? St. Paul actually looked forward to it."
About death Lewis wrote that “on the one hand Death is the triumph of Satan,
the punishment of the Fall, and the last enemy.” But Lewis explains that
death is not only an enemy that defeats every human being; it is also the
means that God uses to redeem us. “On the other hand … the death of
Christ is the remedy for the Fall. Death is, in fact, what some modern
people call ‘ambivalent’… It is Satan’s great weapon and also God’s great
weapon; it is …our supreme disgrace and our only hope; the thing Christ came
to conquer and the means by which He conquered.” Lewis died at age 64 on
November 22, 1963 – the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Everyone has a
worldview—whether we realize it or not. Our worldview is simply our values,
ideas, and belief system. It may include our view of such issues as the
question of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life. After we reach a
certain age, we make one of two basic assumptions: we assume that the
universe is all there is and that life in this world is a matter of chance,
or we assume some intelligence beyond the universe Who gives order to the
universe and meaning to our lives. We all embrace one or the other.
Our worldview
influences our motivation, our identity, our relationships, our valuation of
people, our purpose, and our accomplishments. No part of our personal
history tells more about us than our worldview. Modern medicine is just
beginning to understand and explore this. Our worldview has a profound
effect on our emotional and physical health, on how one responds to
illnesses, on how one lives, and on how one dies. Research shows that with
a spiritual worldview, one seems to fare considerably better in this life.
The Scriptures reveal that one who believes fares considerably better in the
life to come.
In closing, allow me to challenge you to give serious thought to your own
worldview. We owe it to ourselves to look at the evidence - perhaps you
will find reading Dr. Nicholi’s book of some help, or perhaps you will find
guidance in reading the Old and New Testaments.
Two contrasting worldviews – which will it be for you? As for me, I would
side with Lewis who maintained, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that
the sun has risen – not only because I see it, but because by it I see
everything else.”
Thank you very
much.
