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The question of the father, present from the beginnings of psychoanalysis, is not explained in term of its key role in mental life until Moses and Monotheism. From Totem and Taboo, this question is constructed on the murder of the father as the act by which humanity historically enters the individuation process and the work of culture. Moses and Monotheism puts forward the bold hypothesis of an archaic legacy as the core of psychic life at the heart of which is the father that humanity acquired through the murder. We examine this notion of archaic legacy to understand its function, necessity and relevance both in the experience of the treatment and in psychoanalytic theory and to consider the connections between the work of the treatment and the work of culture.