"writer, historian, anti-fascist campaigner" (and a reader of Spinoza)
interested in expanding Spinoza's philosophical work on feeling; a "Spinozism of sensation"
Freud and Rolland were correspondents, and Freud wrote Civilization and Its Discontents in response to a request from Rolland (to analyze a Spinozan "feeling")
the Freud / Rolland dialogue generated ideas that "would shape debates about psychology, mystical experience, and comparative religion throughout the twentieth century," raising "questions about the unfolding path of a human life--about the ideals, practices, and relationships that enable a life to grow and flourish" (103)