Religion echoes infantile states of 'bliss' . This theory is similar to the one above. Instead of a reaction to infantile helplessness, religion tunes into the sense of 'oneness' which the baby is thought to experience with the mother. The early loss of ego boundaries is reproduced in a feeling of the 'transcendent' in adult life. Freud also looked at this 'oceanic' or 'spiritual' feeling in Civilization and its Discontents .
Religion is a mass delusion or paranoid wish-fulfilment .
In turning away from reality and putting a wishful reality in its place the person makes use of magical thinking as described in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life . In some ways this brings religion closer to science. Freud had often said that paranoid delusions are like philosophical systems or scientific theories - they are all trying to make sense of the world, and our place in it. Religion is a way to hold groups together . This is implied in the first view above, dealing with egoistic or 'anti-social' impulses.