Religiosity and Obsessionality: The Relationship Between Freud's “Religious Practices”

Abstract

Freud (1907/1961) outlined parallels between obsessive actions and religious practices, describing how both neurotic and religious practice serve as defensive, self-protective measures involved in the repression of instinctual impulse. Freud also described some differences between the two concepts. To examine these observations, measures of religiosity (the Francis Scale of Attitudes Towards Christianity; Francis & Stubbs, 1987) and obsessional traits and symptoms (the Sandler-Hazari Obsessionality Inventory; Sandler & Hazari, 1960) were administered (N = 139). In both male and female samples, significant correlations were found between the measure of religiosity and obsessional traits but not between religiosity and obsessional symptoms. The results support previous findings linking religiosity and obsessional traits but suggest that differences between religious practices and obsessive actions are greater than their similarities. These findings further illuminate the general relationship between the Francis Scale of Attitudes Towards Christianity and personality.