Totem and Taboo - Freud

Totem and Taboo (1913) marked a turning point in Freud's thought. Drawing on then-current research within anthropology and evolutionary theory, he used a multi-disciplinary approach to expand his theories into new frontiers: beyond the analysis of isolated individuals to the collective psyche--penetrating to the archaic, archetypal, and ancestral memories of civilization itself.

At the heart of the work is a profound exploration of the incest taboo. A taboo, according to Freud, exposes a conflict between the unconscious desires of individuals and the demands of socially harmonious behavior, deriving from a group's relationship to a sacred object (totem). Freud analogizes the belief systems of "savage" societies--animism, magic, superstitions, and scapegoating--to the symptoms of modern-day neurotic patients, situating them both within the tragedy of the human condition.

Totem and Taboo is an important work by one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. With it, Freud laid the foundation for a debate about the relationship between the individual and society that continues to be relevant today.

Totem and Taboo:

• Kindle
• Gutenberg
• Archive
• Librivox

Supplemental:

• Freud was Right! Six-part lecture on Totem and Taboo

Extracts:

• "At that time I was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the ‘taboo’ the use of canoes in all parts of the island is rigorously prohibited to the [female] sex, for whom it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore..." (Typee, 2)
• "This holiest of spots was defended from profanation by the strictest edicts of the all-pervading ‘taboo’, which condemned to instant death the sacrilegious female who should enter or touch its sacred precincts, or even so much as press with her feet the ground made holy by the shadows that it cast." (Typee, 12)
• "In truth, the Typees, so far as their actions evince, submitted to no laws human or divine—always excepting the thrice mysterious Taboo." (Typee, 24)
• "Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending." (Moby-Dick, 17)
• "Cannibals? who is not a cannibal?" (Moby-Dick, 65)

This meetup is part of a series on Fig Leaves and Fancy Pants.