ABSTRACT
Several years ago Freud published a short paper 2 in which he discussed the relation between obsessional neurosis and religious practices. Ordinary observation shows us that very many neurotics—and not only obsessional ones—carry on in private a cult which in its various forms reminds us of religious rites and ceremonies, and that they repeat some of these practices day by day with the same regularity and fixed procedure with which a religious community will repeat its prayers every morning and evening.
