Totem and Taboo

Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics or Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (German: Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker) is a book by Sigmund Freud the founder of Psychoanalysis in which the author applies his work to the fields of archaeology anthropology and the study of religion. It is a collection of four essays inspired by the work of Wilhelm Wundt and Carl Jung and first published in the journal Imago (1912–13): The Horror of Incest Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence Animism Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts and The Return of Totemism in Childhood. The four essays cover a wide range of topics. In The Horror of Incest Freud examines the varied and common rules in primitive cultures that limit contact between members of the same family. In Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence Freud posits that primitive cultures and their attitudes about magical objects are similar to the behavior of people with neurotic psychological conditions in the modern world. In Animism Magic and the Omnipotence of Thought Freud draws comparisons between the primitive belief in magic and magical animals to obsessive and compulsive disorders. Finally in The Return of Totemism in Childhood Freud influenced by one of Charles Darwin's theories about the male dominated arrangement of early human societies looks for parallels with his own Oedipus complex theory in the structure of primitive cultures. A classic and influential work of early psychoanalysis Totem and Taboo is an important read for students of both psychology and social anthropology.