The subject of the study is reception of psychoanalytic interpretation of religion in domestic and foreign psychology of religion. Main domestic and European works from the beginning of XX century to the modern period have been analyzed. Main result of the study is defining three periods of psychoanalytic theories analysis in Russian tradition: the beginning of the XX century, when Russian psychoanalytic schools actively develop the Soviet period (1960–1980) when the descriptive analysis of the works of the psychoanalysis classics dominates modern period, when theoretical papers dominate. Another situation has developed in foreign science – from fascination with Z. Freud’s theory through the critical negation to modern reinterpretation of psychoanalysis. The author has attempted to show that psychoanalytic theories have a large empirical potential.