This book sheds a new light on Freud, who from the beginning was aware that the psychoanalytic edifice he was constructing - which revealed in each individual an "ego not master in its own house" - had clear implications for understanding collective human behavior, including religion, morality, and civilization.

The authors' political focus is unusual, and their choice of quotes from lesser-known sources holds great interest. Freud's interlocutors include Oskar Pfisrer, the Swiss pastor and lay analyst; Einstein; and the American diplomat William Bullitt, with whom Freud wrote a...