Peter Homans offers a new understanding of origins of and relates psychoanalytic project as a whole to sweep of Western culture, past and present. He argues that Freud's fundamental goal was interpretation of and that, therefore, is fundamentally a humanistic social science. To establish this claim, Homans looks back at Freud's self-analysis in light of crucial years from 1906 to 1914 when psychoanalytic movement was formed and shows how these experiences culminated in Freud's cultural texts. By exploring of Homans seeks a better understanding of what a psychoanalysis of culture might be. Psychoanalysis, Homans shows, originated as a creative response to withering away of traditional communities and their symbols in aftermath of industrial revolution. The loss of these attachments played a crucial role in lives of founders of psychoanalysis, especially Sigmund Freud but also Karl Abraham, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, and Ernest Jones. The personal, political, and religious losses that these figures experienced, introspection that followed, and psychological discovery that resulted are what Homans calls the ability to mourn. Homans expands this historical analysis to construct a general model of psychological discovery: loss of shared ideals and symbols can produce a deeper sense of self (psychological structure-building, or individuation) and can then lead to creation of new forms of meaning and self-understanding. He shows how Freud, Jung, and other psychoanalysts began to extend their introspection outward, reinterpreting meanings of Western art, history, and religion. In conclusion, Homans evaluates Freud's theory of and discusses role that might play in social and cultural criticism. Throughout book, Homans makes use of many histories, biographies, and psychobiographies that have been written about origins of psychoanalysis, drawing them into a comprehensive sociocultural model. Rich in insights and highly original in approach, this work will interest psychoanalysts and students of Freud, sociologists concerned with modernity and psychoanalysis, and cultural critics in fields of religion, anthropology, political science, and social history.