Totem and taboo : $b Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics

Chapter 1 · 1/21

Totem and taboo : $b Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics

Chapter 1

¹Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) ²TOTEM AND TABOO BY DR. ³FREUD _New Books on Psycho-Analysis. ⁴_ _WHAT IS PSYCHO-ANALYSIS? ⁵_ By I. ⁶CORIAT. 3_s._ 6_d._ net. ⁷_THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS. ⁸_ By Dr. ⁹JUNG. 21_s._ net. ¹⁰_THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC METHOD. ¹¹_ By PROF. ¹²PFISTER. 21_s._ net. ¹³_MAN’S UNCONSCIOUS CONFLICT. ¹⁴_ By Dr. ¹⁵LAY. 7_s._ 6_d._ net. ¹⁶_THE CHILD’S UNCONSCIOUS MIND. ¹⁷_ By Dr. ¹⁸LAY. 7_s._ 6_d._ net. ¹⁹_MENTAL CONFLICTS AND MISCONDUCT. ²⁰_ By W. ²¹HEALY. 10_s._ 6_d._ net. ²²_PSYCHOLOGY OF SPECIAL ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES. ²³_ By A. ²⁴BRONNER. 10_s._ 6_d._ net. ²⁵_THE NEUROTIC CONSTITUTION. ²⁶_ By Dr. ²⁷ALFRED ADLER. ²⁸_THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FUTURE. ²⁹_ By EMILE BOINAC. ³⁰_PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NORMAL AND SUBNORMAL. ³¹_ By H. ³²GODDARD. ³³KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD., London. ³⁴TOTEM AND TABOO RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN THE PSYCHIC LIVES OF SAVAGES AND NEUROTICS BY PROFESSOR SIGMUND FREUD, Ll. ³⁵Authorized English Translation, with Introduction by A. ³⁶BRILL, Ph.B., M.D. ³⁷Asst. ³⁸Prof. of Psychiatry, N.Y. ³⁹Post-Graduate Medical School; Lecturer in Psychoanalysis and Abnormal Psychology, New York University; former Chief of Clinic of Psychiatry, Columbia University [Illustration: colophon] LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED 1919 _Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner. ⁴⁰_Frome and London_ AUTHOR’S PREFACE The essays treated here appeared under the subtitle of this book in the first numbers of the periodical _Imago_ edited by me. ⁴¹They represent my first efforts to apply view-points and results of psychoanalysis to unexplained problems of racial psychology. ⁴²In method this book contrasts with that of W. ⁴³Wundt and the works of the Zurich Psychoanalytic School. ⁴⁴The former tries to accomplish the same object through assumptions and procedures from non-analytic psychology, while the latter follow the opposite course and strive to settle problems of individual psychology by referring to material of racial psychology[1]. ⁴⁵I am pleased to say that the first stimulus for my own works came from these two sources. ⁴⁶I am fully aware of the shortcomings in these essays. ⁴⁷I shall not touch upon those which are characteristic of first efforts at investigation. ⁴⁸The others, however, demand a word of explanation. ⁴⁹The four essays which are here collected will be of interest to a wide circle of educated people, but they can only be thoroughly understood and judged by those who are really acquainted with psychoanalysis as such. ⁵⁰It is hoped that they may serve as a bond between students of ethnology, philology, folklore and of the allied sciences, and psychoanalysts; they cannot, however, supply both groups the entire requisites for such co-operation. ⁵¹They will not furnish the former with sufficient insight into the new psychological technique, nor will the psychoanalysts acquire through them an adequate command over the material to be elaborated. ⁵²Both groups will have to content themselves with whatever attention they can stimulate here and there and with the hope that frequent meetings between them will not remain unproductive for science. ⁵³The two principal themes, totem and taboo, which give the name to this small book are not treated alike here. ⁵⁴The problem of taboo is presented more exhaustively, and the effort to solve it is approached with perfect confidence. ⁵⁵The investigation of totemism may be modestly expressed as: “This is all that psychoanalytic study can contribute at present to the elucidation of the problem of totemism.” ⁵⁶This difference in the treatment of the two subjects is due to the fact that taboo still exists in our midst. ⁵⁷To be sure, it is negatively conceived and directed to different contents, but according to its psychological nature, it is still nothing else than Kant’s ‘Categorical Imperative’, which tends to act compulsively and rejects all conscious motivations. ⁵⁸On the other hand, totemism is a religio-social institution which is alien to our present feelings; it has long been abandoned and replaced by new forms. ⁵⁹In the religions, morals, and customs of the civilized races of to-day it has left only slight traces, and even among those races where it is still retained, it has had to undergo great changes. ⁶⁰The social and material progress of the history of mankind could obviously change taboo much less than totemism. ⁶¹In this book the attempt is ventured to find the original meaning of totemism through its infantile traces, that is, through the indications in which it reappears in the development of our own children. ⁶²The close connection between totem and taboo indicates the further paths to the hypothesis maintained here. ⁶³And although this hypothesis leads to somewhat improbable conclusions, there is no reason for rejecting the possibility that it comes more or less near to the reality which is so hard to reconstruct. ⁶⁴CONTENTS CHAP. ⁶⁵PAGE I THE SAVAGE’S DREAD OF INCEST 1 II TABOO AND THE AMBIVALENCE OF EMOTIONS 30 III ANIMISM, MAGIC AND THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THOUGHT 125 IV THE INFANTILE RECURRENCE OF TOTEMISM 166 TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION When one reviews the history of psychoanalysis[2] one finds that it had its inception in the study of morbid mental states. ⁶⁶Beginning with the observation of hysteria and the other neuroses[3] Professor Freud gradually extended his investigations to normal psychology and evolved new concepts and new methods of study. ⁶⁷The neurotic symptoms were no longer imaginary troubles the nature of which one could not grasp, but were conceived as mental and emotional maladjustments to one’s environment. ⁶⁸The stamp of degeneracy impressed upon neurotics by other schools of medicine was altogether eradicated. ⁶⁹Deeper investigation showed conclusively that a person might become neurotic if subjected to certain environments, and that there was no definite dividing line between normal and abnormal. ⁷⁰The hysterical symptoms, obsessions, doubts, phobias, as well as hallucinations of the insane, show the same mechanisms as those similar psychic structures which one constantly encounters in normal persons in the form of mistakes in talking, reading, writing, forgetting[4], dreams and wit. ⁷¹The dream, always highly valued by the populace, and as much despised by the educated classes, has a definite structure and meaning when subjected to analysis. ⁷²Professor Freud’s monumental work, _The Interpretation of Dreams_[5], marked a new epoch in the history of mental science. ⁷³One might use the same words in reference to his profound analysis of wit[6]. ⁷⁴Faulty psychic actions, dreams and wit are products of the unconscious mental activity, and like neurotic or psychotic manifestations represent efforts at adjustment to one’s environment. ⁷⁵The slip of the tongue shows that on account of unconscious inhibitions the individual concerned is unable to express his true thoughts; the dream is a distorted or plain expression of those wishes which are prohibited in the waking states, and the witticism, owing to its veiled or indirect way of expression, enables the individual to obtain pleasure from forbidden sources. ⁷⁶But whereas dreams, witticisms, and faulty actions give evidences of inner conflicts which the individual overcomes, the neurotic or psychotic symptom is the result of a failure and represents a morbid adjustment. ⁷⁷The aforementioned psychic formations are therefore nothing but manifestations of the struggle with reality, the constant effort to adjust one’s primitive feelings to the demands of civilization. ⁷⁸In spite of all later development the individual retains all his infantile psychic structures. ⁷⁹Nothing is lost; the infantile wishes and primitive impulses can always be demonstrated in the grown-up and on occasion can be brought back to the surface. ⁸⁰In his dreams the normal person is constantly reviving his childhood, and the neurotic or psychotic individual merges back into a sort of psychic infantilism through his morbid productions. ⁸¹The unconscious mental activity which is made up of repressed infantile material for ever tries to express itself. ⁸²Whenever the individual finds it impossible to dominate the difficulties of the world of reality there is a regression to the infantile, and psychic disturbances ensue which are conceived as peculiar thoughts and acts. ⁸³Thus the civilized adult is the result of his childhood or the sum total of his early impressions; psychoanalysis thus confirms the old saying: The child is father to the man. ⁸⁴It is at this point in the development of psychoanalysis that the paths gradually broadened until they finally culminated in this work. ⁸⁵There were many indications that the childhood of the individual showed a marked resemblance to the primitive history or the childhood of races. ⁸⁶The knowledge gained from dream analysis and phantasies[7], when applied to the productions of racial phantasies, like myths and fairy tales, seemed to indicate that the first impulse to form myths was due to the same emotional strivings which produced dreams, fancies and symptoms[8]. ⁸⁷Further study in this direction has thrown much light on our great cultural institutions, such as religion, morality, law and philosophy, all of which Professor Freud has modestly formulated in this volume and thus initiated a new epoch in the study of racial psychology. ⁸⁸I take great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Mr Alfred B. ⁸⁹Kuttner for the invaluable assistance he rendered in the translation of this work. ⁹⁰BRILL. ⁹¹TOTEM AND TABOO

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