Psychological Approaches. The psychological
theories see ideology primarily as a means of managing
personal strain and anxiety, whether socially or psy-
chologically induced. Among the most important of
the psychological theories are those of Sigmund Freud,
and of Francis X. Sutton and colleagues.
We may associate with Sigmund Freud a unique
approach to the concept of ideology, although to our
knowledge he nowhere undertakes an explicit analysis
of the subject. He does give a fairly extensive treat-
ment of religion, and he does suggest that religion and
ideology have much in common—indeed, that they
may belong to identical species of thought. Consider
the following statement, for example: “Having recog-
nized religious doctrines to be illusions, we are at once
confronted with the further question: may not all cul-
tural possessions, which we esteem highly and by which
we let our life be ruled, be of a similar nature? Should
not the assumptions that regulate our political institu-
tions likewise be called illusions?” (Freud [1957], p.
59). In a word, we would be well justified in substi-
tuting “ideology” wherever Freud uses “religion.”
Freud's starting point is that man's life is governed
by instinctual drives, many of which are subconscious
or unconscious. These instincts are primarily of two
types: life instincts (Eros) and death instincts (Thanatos).
The demands of man's instinctual behavior are in con-
flict with those of society, culture, and civilization.
(The distinctions among these three concepts are not
crucial for our present purposes.) Indeed, the very
possibility of civilization lies in man's ability—volun-
tarily or otherwise—to divert, rechannel, and sublimate
his instinctual energies into more conventional behav-
ior. Culture and civilization demand sacrifices and
instinctual renunciations from the individual. This in
turn intensifies man's natural aggressiveness toward
society, so that “every individual is virtually an enemy
of culture” (ibid., p. 4). It also intensifies man's aggres-
siveness toward his fellow man, so that “civilized soci-
ety is perpetually menaced with disintegration through
this primary hostility of men toward one another”
(Freud [1958], p. 61). The ultimate consequence is war.
At the same time, aggressiveness creates a pervasive
sense of guilt under the pressure of the superego. If
culture and civilization are to exist, their prohibitions
must be internalized by the individual as an integral
part of his moral code. The individual must internalize
not only the prohibitions of culture but also “its herit-
age of ideals and artistic creations,” for these ideals
offer “substitute gratifications for the oldest cultural
renunciations” (Freud [1957], pp. 71, 19; [1958], p. 15).
And now we come to the heart of Freud's argument:
“... the most important part of the psychical inven-
tory of a culture... is... its... religious ideas”
(Freud [1957], p. 20; cf. [1958], p. 38).
Religious conceptions are illusions. They are false-
hoods created to control man, restrain instinctual be-
havior, and perpetuate culture. Freud writes: “... re-
ligious doctrines... are all illusions, they do not admit
of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them
as true or to believe in them.... [The] reality value of
most of them we cannot judge; just as they cannot be
proved, neither can they be refuted.” The strength of
religious ideas lies in the fact that they are “fulfillments
of the oldest, strongest and most insistent wishes of
mankind; the secret of their strength is the strength
of these wishes” (Freud [1957], pp. 54, 51).
Religion (ideology), then, performs the function of
wish-fulfillment. It affords protection and security to
the individual; it controls instinctual behavior and
relieves man of his sense of guilt; it counteracts man's
alienation from society. (The concept of alienation is
implicit in Freud's argument that the undue demands
of civilization create a disjunction between man and
society, but he does not actually use the term.) Reli-
gious ideas “allay our anxiety in the face of life's dan-
gers, the establishment of a moral world order ensures
the fulfillment of the demands of justice, which within
human culture have so often remained unfulfilled, and
the prolongation of earthly existence by a future life
provides in addition the local and temporal setting for
these wish-fulfillments” (ibid., pp. 51-52).
Religion (ideology) is essential to man's psychological
well-being as well as to the continuity of culture.
Sutton and his colleagues offer a conception of ide-
ology as a response to strain generated by social roles.
Modern life, they argue, engenders a host of problems
and stress situations with which each man has to cope.
Individuals daily confront conflicting demands and
anxiety situations in the course of performing their
roles. Since human behavior is patterned in systems
of roles, so are the strains that these roles inescapably
generate.
Since man's reaction to strain is patterned rather
than random, individuals need some “guiding princi-
ples” in the light of which to react. Ideology is a system
of ideas that enables man to cope with strain. “Ideology
is a patterned reaction to the patterned strains of a
social role.... Where a role involves patterns of con-
flicting demands, the occupants of that role may re-
spond by elaborating a system of ideas and symbols,
which in part may serve as a guide to action, but chiefly
has broader and more direct functions as a response
to strain” (Sutton et al., pp. 307-08).
Although there is a basic relationship between ide-
ology and strain, the actual linkages are by no means
clear or simple, for the individual may react to strain
in a variety of ways, including pathological behavior,
Ideology is merely one way of responding to stress.
It is “a symbolic outlet” for emotional disturbances
generated by social and personal disequilibrium. This
includes release of emotional tension by displacing it
into symbolic enemies (e.g., scapegoatism). Ideology
performs the function of tension management and
sustains the individual in the face of continued stress.
The psychological approaches, then, focus on ideol-
ogy primarily in terms of its relation to the individual
and its consequences for social conduct. They are par-
ticularly interested in ideology as a means of stabilizing
the psychological makeup of the individual, equipping
him with an appropriate set of psychological reactions,
reconciling him to the conflicting demands of social
life, and providing relief from anxiety and strain.
