William B. Parsons is Professor of Religion at Rice University. He has authored nine books, including The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling (1742 and 1998) and Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (2000).

1. Why Freud wrote on Religion; 2. Totem and taboo: the origin of religion; 3. Freud's Moses: the advent of monotheism; 4. Future of an illusion: the secular cure of souls; 5. Civilization and its discontents: the Unbehagen of religion; 6. Freud and eastern religions; 7. Psychoanalysis and religion beyond Freud; 8. Revisions and applications; Conclusion: Psychoanalytic spirituality.