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"Totem and Taboo" is a collection of four essays by Sigmund Freud that were published together in German in 1913. Freud sought to apply his theories of psychoanalysis to the study of anthropology and early human history. 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.
About the author
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist who lived from 6 May 1856 to 23 September 1939, founded psychoanalysis, a therapeutic approach that involves a patient and a psychoanalyst in a conversation to assess and treat psychiatric diseases. At Vienna General Hospital, Lucian Freud started his medical training in 1882 and began researching the effects of medications on the human body. His study of brain anatomy resulted in the publishing of a significant paper on cocaine's painkilling properties in 1884. His first work, On Aphasia: A Critical Study, was based on research on aphasia and was released in 1891. Freud left his hospital position in 1886 and started a private clinic where he focused on "nervous disorders." In that same year, he wed Martha Bernays, a descendant of Hamburg's head rabbi Isaac Bernays. In his mouth, Freud had a leukoplakia in 1923, a benign growth connected to excessive smoking. He was encouraged to stop smoking by dermatologist Maximilian Steiner, who lied about the significance of the development. By the middle of September 1939, Freud was suffering from jaw cancer, which was making his agony worse. Max Schur persuaded Anna Freud that keeping him alive was futile. On the morning of September 23, 1939, at about three in the morning, he gave Freud dosages of morphine that caused his death.
