In this controversial study, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) applies the theories and evidence of his psychoanalytic investigations to the study of aboriginal peoples and, by extension, to the earliest cultural stages of the human race before the rise of large-scale civilisations. Freud points out the striking parallels between the cultural practices of native tribal groups and the behaviour patterns of neurotics. Beginning with a discussion of the incest taboo, he compares some of the elaborate taboo restrictions seen in these cultures to the scrupulous rituals of compulsion neurotics, who in a similar fashion are wrestling with the ambivalent emotions aroused by the incest taboo. He suggests that many of the rituals of culture are developed as psychological reactions to taboos, which prohibit the acting out of an infantile impulse that would be socially destructive. Freud concludes by invoking his famous Oedipal complex as the key to the development of culture.;The repressed psychological urge to kill the father as a rival for the mother's affections is the underlying motive for the symbols and ceremonies of religion with its rituals of atonement and its notions of angry gods, original sin, and human guilt. Although Freud's theories are controversial today, this masterful synthesis and its undeniable influence on later scholars of religion, anthropology, and psychology make it a seminal work.

Totem and Taboo is work employing the application of psychoanalysis to the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and the study of religion. The four chapters are entitled: The Horror of Incest; Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence; Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts; and The Return of Totemism in Childhood.

This book marked a notable advance in psychiatry in that it emphasizes sharply the contrast between the older descriptive psychiatry of Kraeplin and the newer interpretative psychiatry of the present time which utilizes the psychoanalytical principles and general biological viewpoints developed by Freud and his pupils in Europe and by Meyer, Hoch, White and others. As an introduction to the study of clinical psychiatry the physician and the student will find the chapters dealing with the principles of psychology and psychopathalogy particularly helpful and stimulating.

This book marked a notable advance in psychiatry in that it emphasizes sharply the contrast between the older descriptive psychiatry of Kraeplin and the newer interpretative psychiatry of the present time which utilizes the psychoanalytical principles and general biological viewpoints developed by Freud and his pupils in Europe and by Meyer, Hoch, White and others. As an introduction to the study of clinical psychiatry the physician and the student will find the chapters dealing with the principles of psychology and psychopathalogy particularly helpful and stimulating.

Presents a selection of the important writings of the nineteenth-century psychiatrist, including Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Interpretation of Dreams, and Totem and Taboo..

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.