[177] "Der Alptraum in seiner Beziehung zu gewissen Formen des mittelalterlichen Aberglaubens." Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde.
[178] Particularly for undesirable thoughts of a sexual nature, the Devil being the recognised source of temptations and obsessions of this kind. The sexual aspects of the Father God are of course throughout chiefly noticeable in his relations to women and in the attitude adopted towards him by women. Thus the long series of amorous adventures on the part of Zeus are typical instances of father-daughter incest. In many places the cohabitation of a god with a mortal woman, who is regarded as his bride, has been an essential part of religious ceremonial; though the god himself is often, conveniently enough, impersonated for this purpose by his priest. The very widespread practice of religious prostitution seems to be derived from the same source (Cp. Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," I., 57 ff.). That girls should, before they marry, give themselves to the god, to his representative, or to some other man under his auspices, may be regarded as a custom having some relation to the initiation phantasies and ceremonies which we have already considered; the girl's introduction to sex life being, through this custom, accomplished by the father, or at least under his guidance and with his approval. A social parallel to this religious custom is to be found in the droit de seigneur, in virtue of which the lord of the manor had the right to sexual intercourse with a bride before she could be claimed by her husband.
In the Christian Church, owing, we may suppose, to the increasing repression of the more directly sexual aspects of the father-regarding feelings, the sexual elements in the religious attitude of women is more frequently directed to Christ than to God the Father (corresponding to a brother-sister rather than to the older father-daughter type of affection). Nevertheless, the persistence of incestuous tendencies towards the father, can often be observed in individual cases.
[179] Cp. Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero," 83 ff.
[180] Though there are indications that the Christian God is sometimes regarded as bisexual (cp. von Winterstein, "Psychoanalytische Anmerkungen zur Geschichte der Philosophie," Imago, 1913, II, 195), comparing in this respect with the original bisexual world parents found in some more primitive religions, e.g. Ymir, the giant out of whose body the world was made according to Scandinavian mythology.
[181] Cp. Frazer. "The Dying God," 5. Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," 1858, Vol. VI. Ch. L, 223. The notion of the Holy Ghost as a mother is also found to occur spontaneously in children. Cp. Sully, "Studies of Childhood," 132.
[182] The repression of the mother-regarding feelings has had its influence not only on the attitude towards the mother element in religion and on the attitude towards women in general, but also on everything that is (consciously or unconsciously) associated with women and especially with the mother. There is one curious instance of this influence which has been of very considerable importance in the history of philosophy, science and of man's attitude towards some of the most important problems of life and mind. There exists a very general association, on the one hand between the notion of mind, spirit or soul and the idea of the father or of masculinity; and on the other hand between the notion of the body or of matter (materia = that which belongs to the mother) and the idea of the mother or of the feminine principle. The repression of the emotions and feelings relating to the mother has, in virtue of this association, produced a tendency to adopt an attitude of distrust, contempt, disgust or hostility towards the human body, the Earth, and the whole material Universe, with a corresponding tendency to exalt and over-emphasise the spiritual elements, whether in man or in the general scheme of things. It seems very probable that a good many of the more pronouncedly idealistic tendencies in philosophy may owe much of their attractiveness in many minds to a sublimation of this reaction against the mother, while the more dogmatic and narrow forms of materialism may perhaps in their turn represent a return of the repressed feelings originally connected with the mother. (Cp. Von Winterstein, op. cit.)
[183] See E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity," Vol. I. Ch. I.
[184] It is suggestive to note that, in order to make sure that Mary had no connection with men whatsoever, it was decided (Papal Bull 1853) that she did not even have a father.
[185] Cp. Lorenz, "Das Titanenmotiv in der allgemeinen Mythologie," Imago, II.