An improved procedure is suggested for finding the total photoabsorption cross section on the neutron from data on the deuteron at energies < 1.5 GeV. It includes unfolding of smearing effects caused by Fermi motion of nucleons in the deuteron and also takes into account non-additive contributions to the deuteron cross section due to final-state interactions of particles in single and double pion photoproduction. This procedure is applied to analysis of existing data.