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. In his Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego Freud tries to describe the actual structure of groups as he sees it from the point of view of the emotional ties that bind them together. He returns to the theme in Civilization and its Discontents . Each of these theories has been criticized for being over-simple. The main objection seems to be directed at the implication that religion is a neurosis.