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  [[Totem and Taboo]] is Sigmund [[Freud]]'s first [[work]] on group [[psychology]].    The work presents an analogy between two [[terms]]: on the one hand, savages, on the [[other]], neurotics and [[children]].   The analogy unfolds in [[three]] parts, starting in the first essay where the resemblance between the two is related to the [[horror]] of [[incest]] that Freud [[identified]] in savages by analyzing totemic systems as laws of exogamy. The second essay interprets [[taboo]] as a manifestation of the [[ambivalence]] of emotions. Freud postulates the [[primal]] [[existence]] of emotional currents, distinguishes between savages and the rest of us based on the intensity of [[emotion]], and provides the first in-depth investigation of this conception of emotion. The [[third]] essay, cutting across similarities and differences, offers, among other things, the first detailed investigation of [[narcissism]] ([[animism]]). But there is more to the analogy, which Freud develops at the end of the third essay and in the fourth. He establishes the existence of the [[concepts]] he examines, the [[dynamic]] that governs [[them]], as well as their bearing on his own work, on the following hypotheses: the existence of a [[primitive horde]] whose [[father]] is omnipotent; the [[murder]] of the father by the group of brothers, leading to the growth of the totemic clan, and the [[conditions]] for this possibility of [[thought]].  Totem and Taboo was the basis for Freud's work on [[group psychology]]. Like most of his work, it is more frequently reduced to a simple [[formula]] (the murder of the father by the [[horde]]) than studied or [[understood]] as a [[whole]]. The only valid criticism concerns the hypothesis of the phylogenetic transmission of precise [[memory]] traces. But the forms assumed by the [[primal horde]] and the totemic clan, as well as the foundational [[moment]] of rupture that they share, remain pertinent. The [[libidinal]] dynamics that constitute such groups were later elaborated in Group Psychology and the [[Analysis]] of the Ego (1921c), along with the status of the "poet" who invents the [[myth]] of origin.  See also: Act/action; Ambivalence; Animistic thought; Anthropology and psychoanalysis; [[Castration]] [[complex]]; [[Cultural]] transmission; [[Darwin]], [[Darwinism]] and psychoanalysis; [[Ethics]]; [[Father complex]]; [[Gift]]; [[Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]; Heredity of acquired characters; [[Identification]]; Incest; Magical [[thinking]]; [[Myth of origins]]; Mythology and psychoanalysis; [[Oedipus]] complex; Omnipotence of [[thoughts]]; [[Organic]] [[repression]]; ; Phylogenesis; Phylogenetic [[Fantasy]], A: [[Overview]] of the [[Transference]] [[Neuroses]]; [[Primitive]]; Primitive horde; [[Projection]]; Taboo; Thalassa: A [[Theory]] of Genitality; [[Totem/totemism]]; "[[Uncanny]], The."Source Citation  * Freud, Sigmund (1912-13a), Totem und Tabu. EinigeÜbereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker, Leipzig-Vienna, Hugo Heller; GW, IX; appeared with the title "Über einigeÜbereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker" as a series of four essays in Imago; first essay: "Die Inzestscheu," I, 1, Vienna, 1912, 17-33; second essay: "Das Tabu und die Ambivalenz der Gefühlsregungen," I, 3, Vienna, 1912, 213-227, I, 4, 301-333; third essay: "Animismus, Magie und Allmacht der Gedanken," II, 1, Vienna, 1913, 1-21; fourth essay: "Die infantile Widerkehr des Totemismus," II, 4, Vienna, 1913, 357-408; Totem and taboo. SE, 13: 1-161.* [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1921c). Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. SE, 18: 65-143.* Freud, Sigmund, and Ferenczi, Sandor. (1993-2000). The correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi (Eds. Eva Brabant, Ernst Falzeder, and Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch, Peter T. Hoffer, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard [[University]] Press. ==new== '''''Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the [[Mental ]] Lives of Savages and Neurotics''''' was a book written by [[Sigmund Freud]] published in [[German language|German]] as ''Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker'' in 1913. It was a collection of four essays which had been published in the journal ''[[Imago (journal)|Imago]]'' from 1912-1913 as an application of [[psychoanalysis]] to the fields of [[archeology]], [[anthropology]], and the study of [[religion]]. Of the four essays — "The Horror of Incest", "Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence", "Animism, [[Magic ]] and the [[Omnipotence of Thoughts]]", and "The [[Return ]] of Totemism in [[Childhood]]" — the last was the most unique and wide-ranging in its argument.

The first and shortest of the four essays concerns [[totemism]] and creation of [[family ]] [[structures ]] and thus incest taboos. Freud uses examples mostly from the [[Aboriginal Australians]] peoples as gathered and discussed by anthropologist [[J.G. Frazer]].

Freud discusses various ways in which the [[exogamy]] of the [[totem]] [[system ]] prevents [[incest]] not only among the nuclear family, but among extended families as well. In addition, the totem system prevents 'incest' among members of the same totem clan who are not related by blood and considers as incest relations between clan members which could not produce children (i.e. [[looking ]] at one [[another]]). From this, Freud concludes that the taboos are not set up for a totally '[[practical ]] [[nature]]' and thus must have some [[psychoanalytical ]] justification.

He concludes the essay with a [[discussion ]] of the [[mother-in-law]] taboo, and concludes that the incestuous wishes which are [[repressed ]] to the [[unconscious ]] among [[civilized ]] peoples are still a [[conscious ]] peril to the uncivilized [[people ]] in Frazer's studies.

In this essay, Freud considers the [[relationship ]] of [[taboo]]s to totemism. Freud uses his concepts 'projection' and 'ambivalence' he developed during his work with neurotic [[patients ]] in [[Vienna ]] to discuss the relationship between taboo and totemism.

Like [[neurotic]]s, 'primitive' peoples feel ambivalent [[about ]] most people in their lives, but will not admit this consciously to themselves. They will not admit that as much as they [[love ]] their [[mother]], there are things about her they [[hate]]. The suppressed part of this ambivalence (the hate parts) are projected onto [[others]]. In the [[case ]] of natives, the hateful parts are projected onto the totem. As in: 'I did not [[want ]] my mother to die, the totem wanted her to die.'

Freud expands this [[idea ]] of ambivalence to include the relationship of citizens to their ruler. In ceremonies surrounding kings, which are often quite violent, – such as the king starving himself in the woods for a few weeks – he considers two levels that are functioning to be the "ostensible" (i.e., the king is [[being ]] honored) and the "actual" (i.e., the king is being tortured).

The third essay examines the animism and naricissistic [[phase ]] associated with a primitive [[understanding ]] of the [[universe ]] and early libidinal [[development]]. A [[belief ]] in magic and sorcery derives from an overvaluation of [[physical ]] [[acts ]] whereby the [[structural ]] conditions of [[mind ]] are transposed onto the [[world]]: this overvaluation survives in both primitive men and neurotics. The [[animistic]] mode of thinking is governed by an "omnipotence of thoughts", a [[projection (psychology)|projection]] of inner mental [[life ]] onto the [[external ]] world. This [[imaginary ]] [[construction ]] of [[reality ]] is also discernable in [[obsessive]] thinking, [[delusional disorder]]s and [[phobia]]s. Freud comments that the omnipotence of thoughts has been retained in the magical realm of art. The last part of the essay concludes the relationship between [[magic (paranormal)]], [[superstition]] and taboo, arguing that the practices of animistic system are ''cree'' behind which lies [[instinctual ]] [[repression (psychological)|repression]].

In the final essay, Freud argues that combining one of [[Charles Darwin]]'s more speculative theories about the arrangements of early [[human ]] societies (a single alpha-[[male ]] surrounded by a harem of females, similar to the arrangement of [[gorilla]] groupings) with the theory of the sacrifice [[ritual ]] taken from [[William Robertson Smith]] located the origins of [[totem|totemism]] in a [[singular ]] [[event]], whereby a band of prehistoric brothers expelled from the alpha-male group returned to kill their father, whom they both feared and respected. In this respect, Freud located the beginnings of the [[Oedipus complex]] at the origins of human [[society]], and postulated that all religion was in effect an extended and collective [[form ]] of [[guilt]] and ambivalence to cope with the killing of the father [[figure ]] (which he saw as the [[true ]] [[original sin]]).

The [[English ]] [[translation ]] was published in 1918; it met with an initially chilly reception from the anthropological [[community]], reflective of a [[change ]] in scholarship towards [[ethnography]] and away from the more speculative "[[theoretical ]] anthropology". However in later years, Freud's approach, if not the specific theory advanced, would become much more prominent within anthropological [[literature ]] as incorporated into the [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] approach.