ABSTRACT
There are no grounds for fearing that psycho-analysis, which first discovered that psychical acts and structures are invariably over-determined, 1 will be tempted to trace the origin of anything so complicated as religion to a single source. If psychoanalysis is compelled—and is, indeed, in duty bound—to lay all the emphasis upon one particular source, that does not mean it is claiming either that that source is the only one or that it occupies first place among the numerous contributory factors. Only when we can synthesize the findings in the different fields of research will it become possible to arrive at the relative importance of the part played in the genesis of religion by the mechanism discussed in these pages. Such a task lies beyond the means as well as beyond the purposes of a psycho-analyst.
