Totem and Taboo presents Sigmund Freud’s four essays applying psychoanalysis to the study of religion, society, and the origins of culture. Freud explores totemism, the incest taboo, animism and magic, and his speculative reconstruction of a primal act at the dawn of human society, drawing widely on the anthropology of his time.
One of Freud’s most ambitious cultural works, the book attempts to link the mental life of individuals with that of “primitive” peoples, proposing that taboos and religious institutions echo unconscious conflicts. Its bold theses provoked lasting debate in anthropology and religious studies. This English edition offers an accessible route into Freud’s thinking on culture and remains a foundational, if controversial, text in the study of human belief.