Religion and the Return of the Repressed

This book is an interesting read. Badcock argues that, for Freud, the development of culture/history/society/religion has followed a trajectory similar to that of the individual psyche. (Regarding this see chart on page 246 and also surrounding text to the end of the book.) He considers Psychoanalysis the heir of the religious trajectory (which is, according to our author, animism, totemism, polytheism, monotheism, catholicism, protestantism) insofar as psychoanalysis too was made by the reality principle. (I would add made by the reality principle in concrete non-repeatable circumstances.)
Our author has an interesting take on the return of the repressed. He says,
"any stage in the evolution of religion represented here [in the chart mentioned above] shows itself to be a partial return of the religion of the stage before the stage before it."
Thus Catholicism is a partial return of polytheism while protestantism is a partial return of a far more austere monotheism. If this analysis holds up, this also means that psychoanalysis is somehow a partial return of Catholicism! Our author accepts this, saying that what returns of Catholicism in Psychoanalysis is its universalism. That is, Catholicism contains within itself bits and pieces of all the religious types (again, the chart) that came before it.
Psychoanalysis too, according to our author, can be all things to all people (that is, at least all people that are analyzed) according to their needs. I found this last a bit unconvincing. After all, this inclusivity could be said of any Universalism that claims to be applicable to all. That is, all universalisms are definitionally inclusive. Why mention it?
Regarding Psychoanalysis and Religion, I suggest reading Lacan ("The Triumph of Religion") and, of course, almost anything by Jung. I think Philip Rieff and Rene Girard might be useful here too.
And, regarding the 'return of the repressed' and religious change I would have a look at Jan Assmann ("The Price of Monotheism") and his notion of the 'cultural unconscious'; which does not seem to suggest any Order to what returns. That is, for Badcock (see chart), there are several religious epochs, for Assmann there are only two: monotheism and the cosmotheism (most call this polytheism) it repressed. It might be interesting to compare Badcock and Assmann in detail. Both Assmann and Badcock insist upon the enduring presence of the past in later religious formations.

Since this book is out of print I include the contents:

Contents
1. The Primal Trauma
2. The Omnipotence of Thoughts
-Oedipus in Embryo
-Oedipus Rex
3. The Obsessional Neurosis
4. The Return of the Repressed
-A la Recherche des Dieux Perdus
-God Regained
5. Resolution and Recovery
Bibliography
Index ( )