Nietzsche e Freud sulla religione civile

Nietzsche and Freud on Civil Religion · The relationship between religion and civilisa- tion, with particular reference to both the political use of religion and the sacralisation of civil laws, occupies a central, and yet diffuse and cross-cutting place in both Nietzsche’s philosophy and Freud’s analysis of civilization. The outcome of their analyses, however, is rather different. On the one hand, Nietzsche finds in the Judeo-Christian religion an instrument of domination «hostile» to life, since it creates an obedient but «resentful» society, nevertheless assigns to reli- gion, whose myth has been not paralysed in an abstract and ascetic conviction, a decisive role for civilization, Freud, on the other hand, in the most radical formulation of his social metapsy- chology, deprives religion of any civil function, relegating it to the status of a neurotic relict that an adult and healthy civilization must necessarily leave behind.