"... Freud's narrative has come full circle. The primal father, who was once killed, returns in full power - only to be killed again. Yet while after the first killing the sons had established totemism, this time they formed 'an alternative method of allaying their guilt'. According to Freud, this new way of
paying for the murder of the primal father was 'first adopted by Christ', who 'sacrificed his own life and so redeemed the company of brothers from original sin'. The basis for this claim is an astonishing reading Freud provides of the notion of original sin, which he interprets as the murder of the father. This leads him to conclude that 'in the Christian doctrine... men were acknowledging in the most disguised manner the guilty primeval deed, since they found the fullest atonement for it in the sacrifice of this one son'." (
emphasis my own - Jon)
Tan Waelchli Psychoanalytical Reflections on the Nature of Money
in David Bennet (Ed) Loaded Subjects (2012) p.172
