ABSTRACT
In the opening paragraphs of The Future of an Illusion, Freud indicates that the scope of his interest extends to the “future of our civilization,” an analysis of which, he declares, must includes a broad understanding of civilization’s past and present conditions. He then devotes the first quarter of the book to thoughts upon this subject, which he terms “the general scheme of things.” 1 A macro-analysis of “civilization”—Freud’s larger interest, to which he will return two years later in his Civilization and its Discontents—thus sets the stage for the book’s announced subject, the future of religion.
