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The term "primitive" (sometimes "primeval" or "[[primal]]") is close to "archaic," but should be distinguished from the latter in that "primitive" refers not to origins but rather to an anthropological or historical description of [[cultural ]] phenomena ([[myths]], [[religions]], legends) or modes of [[thinking ]] that remain [[unconscious ]] in modern, [[civilized ]] [[humans]].

[[Freud]]'s interest in the primitive was manifested as early as "A [[Project ]] for a [[Scientific ]] [[Psychology]]" (1950c [1895]), where he cited Charles [[Darwin]]. Thereafter, this [[notion ]] is always found at the interface between, on the one hand, Freud's preoccupation with [[biological ]] evolution and phylogenesis and, on the [[other]], his hypotheses on the [[formation ]] of [[social ]] groups, as presented in [[particular ]] in [[Totem ]] and [[Taboo ]] (1912-1913a) and [[Moses ]] and [[Monotheism ]] (1939a [1934-1938]).

In Freud's hypothesis, as outlined in "On the [[Universal ]] Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of [[Love]]" (1912d), "primitive" [[people]], although they too live in a [[civilization ]] remote from archaic [[times]], are the equivalent of the [[childhood ]] of "civilized" people. Thus everything [[about ]] [[them ]] is relevant to the study of humanity as a [[whole]]. Among salient examples of Freud's use of the term in his [[work ]] are references to primitive religions and primitive [[sexual ]] rites of worship ([[letter ]] to Wilhelm [[Fliess ]] dated January 24, 1897) and to primitive [[languages ]] in which, as in [[dreams]], there is no such [[thing ]] as [[negation ]] or [[contradiction ]] (1900a), or in which a [[word ]] is even systematically used with opposite [[meanings ]] to express [[ambivalence ]] (1910e).

In fact, [[thought ]] itself, at these primitive [[stages]], possesses original characteristics—such as conceptions of [[death]], mechanisms of projection, and sexualized thought—as are found in magical beliefs or [[animism ]] (1912-1913a). Freud hypothesized that social organization is initially patriarchal (the primal [[horde]]), then matriarchal (the divinization of [[woman ]] as [[mother ]] and the grouping of brothers into totemic clans), and finally once again patriarchal and patrilineal, with a unique God replacing the primal [[father]]. This conception constitutes a [[model ]] for viewing collective [[life ]] in general in its different, ever unstable configurations. The notion of the primitive always appears at the boundaries of [[myth]], legend, and [[history]], which are characteristic of the primitive style of [[writing ]] history (1909d).

The primal [[scene ]] (when a [[child ]] is first emotionally aware of his [[parents ]] copulating) also condenses certain [[epistemological ]] questions that can be raised about the primitive, particularly concerning the [[reality ]] of what the small child has seen or heard in connection with the parents' [[sexual relations]].

The notion of the primitive occupies a central [[place ]] in Freud's thought. It is the equivalent, at the collective level, to the [[infantile ]] at the [[individual ]] level. This aspect of Freud's work provides the outlines for fruitful interaction between [[anthropology ]] and [[psychoanalysis]].

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1950c [1895]). A project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.# ——. (1900a). The [[interpretation ]] of dreams. SE, 4: 1-338]]