Fears and stories about an underground religion devoted to Satan, which demands and carries out child sacrifice, appeared in the United States in the late twentieth century and became the subject of media reports supported by some mental health professionals. Examining these modern fantasies leads us back to ancient stories which in some cases believers consider the height of religious devotion. Horrifying ideas about human sacrifice, child sacrifice, and the offering to the gods of a beloved only son by his father appear repeatedly in Western traditions, starting with the Greeks and the Hebrews. In Flesh and Blood: Interrogating Freud on Human Sacrifice, Real and Imagined, Beit-Hallahmi focuses on rituals of violence tied to religion, both imagined and real. The main focus of this work is the meaning of blood and ritual killing in the history of religion. The book examines the encounter with the idea of child sacrifice in the context of human hopes for salvation.

Examining the theme of child sacrifice as a psychological challenge, this book applies a unique approach to religious ideas by looking at beliefs and practices that are considered deviant, but also make up part of mainstream religious discourse in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Ancient religious mythology, which survives through living traditions and transmitted narratives, rituals, and writings, is filled with violent stories, often involving the targeting of children as ritual victims. Christianity offers Abraham's sacrifice and assures us that the “only begotten son” has died, and then been resurrected. This version of the sacrifice myth has dominated the West. It is celebrated in an act of fantasy cannibalism, in which the believers share the divine son's flesh and blood. This book makes the connection between Satanism stories in the 1980s, the Blood Libel in Europe, The Eucharist, and Eastern Mediterranean narratives of child sacrifice.

This Element consists of three interrelated parts. 'What Freud Said' summarizes the salient details of Freud's psychology of religion: his views on the origins and development of western religions; on contemporary western monotheisms; on the 'unpsychological' proceedings of the religio-cultural super-ego; his qualified endorsement of religious forms of psychotherapy; and his cursory analysis of eastern religions.'What Freud got Wrong' surveys the history of the multidisciplinary critiques (anthropological, sociological, later psychoanalytic, theological/philosophical) that have been levelled at his interpretative strategies. 'Towards a Revised Psychoanalytic Theory of Religion' suggests that the best way forward is to employ a psychoanalytic theory of religion which, taking its cue from the history of its critique, houses reflective, inclusive and dialogical elements. It presents illustrations taken from a variety of contemporary religio-cultural phenomena (marvel movies; issues concerning religion, sexuality and gender; the Megachurch; QAnon) as portable lessons for such applications.