In this landmark collection of essays, published as Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics
in 1918, the father of psychoanalysis explores the conflict between
primitive feelings and the demands of civilization, i.e., the struggle
to reconcile unconscious desires with socially acceptable behavior.
Totemism,
a concept found in societies around the world, involves the belief in a
sacred relationship between an object (totem) and a human kinship
group. Men and women bearing the same totem are prohibited from marrying
each other, this being a form of incest taboo. Freud identifies a
strong unconscious inclination as the basis of taboo, and he attempts to
define its source by tracing the earliest appearance in childhood
development of totemism. After an examination of the incest taboo in
primitive societies around the world, Freud discusses taboo and the
ambivalence of emotions; animism, magic, and the omnipotence of thought;
and the infantile recurrence of totemism.
An important work by one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers, Totem and Taboo
is essential reading for teachers and students of psychology as well as
those with an interest in ethnology and folklore. This inexpensive
edition offers all readers access to one of Freud's most penetrating
attempts to decipher the mysteries of human behavior.
Totem and Taboo - Sigmund Freud
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