This book sheds a new light on Freud who, from the beginning, was aware that the edifice he was constructing – psychoanalysis – which revealed in each individual an "ego not master in its own house" –, had clear implications for understanding collective human behaviour. This man was profoundly concerned with matters of peace and war, religion, morality and civilisation.

The authors’ political focus is unusual, and their choice of quotes from lesser-known sources holds great interest. Freud’s interlocutors include Oskar Pfisrer, Swiss pastor and lay analyst; Einstein; and the American diplomat William Bullitt, with whom Freud wrote a study of President Wilson, entitled Thomas Widrow Wilson. A Psychological Study. In the Introduction to this book, written in 1930, Freud describes Wilson as a person for whom mere facts held no significance; he esteemed highly nothing but human motives and opinions.