The deep meaning of rituals has gradually been hidden by superficial interpretations and rationalizations. That the deeper meaning is known to some people who observe the rituals is revealed by analysis. Most persons explain the rite of circumcision as having sanitary advantage, instead of seeing the deeper meaning of a compromise between father and son whereby only the foreskin is removed as a substitute for castration. Feldman offers examples of the use of religious rituals for defensive purposes in neurosis and shows the psychogenesis of religious ceremonies in which the ceremonial design offers both gratification of the forbidden impulse and a method for its prohibition.