To assert that morality is self-evident and that one had never done a mean thing are strangely revealing statements to come from the lips of a person whose object of study was man, himself included. It reflects, I believe, Freud's unshakable determination to be a moralist in the guise of a scientist. In this endeavor, he succeeded only too well: as a cryptomoralist, Freud became the founder of a sort of secular religion which has had immense influence on popular contemporary thought and life. …