“I can imagine that the oceanic feeling could become connected with religion later on. That feeling of oneness with the universe which is its ideational content sounds very like a first attempt at the consolations of religion, like another way taken by the ego of denying the dangers it sees threatening it in the external world.”

Austrian physician and psychoanalyst of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Freud is best known for founding psychoanalysis and exploring the unconscious mind through techniques like free association. His theories on the structure of personality—id, ego, and superego—and the role of early childhood experiences in shaping behavior remain foundational in psychology.