Freud's work is reviewed in light of five new areas of information that were not available to him. The five areas are: (a) anthropology's finding of the cultural nature of humanity; (b) empirical studies of the mother—infant affectional interaction and of the competence of infants; (c) the discovery of rapid eye movements (REM); (d) the role of emotions in social communication as well as individual arousal; and (e) the burgeoning of the psychology of sex differences, especially in cognitive style. The tension between Freud's clinical observations and his metapsychology is interpreted as a function, in part, of gaps in then existing knowledge. The review suggests that the concept of the cultural nature of humanity, with the attachment emotions of shame and guilt as part of human equipment, was implied in Freud's clinical observations and could have eased Freud's theoretical difficulties. As an example of the usefulness of this concept, the views of psychoanalysis and behavior theory about phobias are examined, showing that both approaches can profit from attention to the attachment emotions.