Woolfson hit upon the idea of researching the life and works of Sigmund Freud with a view to their musical potential after he finished Gaudi.

He retraced Freud's footsteps and explored his realms through his homes in London and Vienna (both now museums), as well as literary sources including Freud's classic cases, whose real identities he concealed by use of names such as Wolfman, Ratman, Dora, Little Hans, and Schreber, the Judge.

In addition, Freud's writings on his discovery of the unconscious, his well-known theories such as the Oedipus Complex, the ego and the id and perhaps his best known work, The Interpretation of Dreams all served as springboards for musical ideas.

It includes 18 tracks with lead vocal performances from Leo Sayer, Kiki Dee, Marti Webb, 10cc's Eric Stewart, Frankie Howerd, Gary Howard and the Flying Pickets, as well as previous Alan Parsons Project vocalists Chris Rainbow, John Miles, Graham Dye, and Woolfson.

[It] started as an Alan Parsons Project concept album, and when we were close to completing it, this theatrical producer called Brian Brolly heard it and wanted to develop it into a stage musical, so we had to literally double the length of it and put new music in, do reprises, and, y’know, write songs for different characters and so on.

Had it come out as The Alan Parsons Project, it probably would’ve done a whole lot better [...]We often disagreed and the tragic thing about "Freudiana" was that it all turned into a legal battle between Eric and the producer.

After all the disputes, he really wanted to go back to the theater, and I personally didn't really see the point of expressing my creativity there.It started out that it was going to be an Alan Parsons Project album, but I wanted to develop into musical theater, so we didn’t call it an Alan Parsons Project album.