Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the significance of portrayal of God as a benevolent Father-figure across various religions. The study attempts to show how the lack of a father (Other) in real, material and physical plane of reality actually can pave the way for the projection of a more powerful, infallible and still protective Father (other) on an abstract plane through the idea of God. The main theoretical framework of this paper is borrowed from Freud’s ‘Father-Projection Hypothesis’ and is also based on George Eman Vaillant’s four level classification of psychological defense mechanisms. Here I attempt to conduct a comparative study among four great religions namely Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam to find out how therelative absence or presence of God as the Heavenly Father has influenced the mode of thinking and worshipping in those religions. This study also endeavors to prove that though initially the absence of a real father figure provides a driving force behind projection of the father as a Divine and Universal construct, in the long run this absence or loss of biological father-figure should be countered with the strategies like Sublimation and Altruism.

Key words: Freud, Father-figure, Projection Theory, God, Atheism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Psychoanalysis.