Sailing into New York Harbor, Sigmund Freud stood on the deck and gazed upon a statue that was meant to symbolize someone elses vague notion of freedom. The embryonic field of psychology--so very interested to hear this theory, which excavated the depths of the psyche--anticipated his arrival in America with lamentably eager fanfare. Whether out of hubris or prescience Freud could only whisper, ""They dont realize we are bringing them the plague.""

It was a theory that undercut our creative justifications for every action and belief, and it suggested our anxious identities are charted by a...