The work explores the connection between the totemic system of Australian Aboriginal societies and the taboo prohibitions of Polynesian cultures, tracing their origins back to a common source in the Oedipus complex. It argues that the totem represents a collective father figure, whose murder by the primal horde led to feelings of guilt and the establishment of moral restrictions.
By Sigmund Freud · First published 1913 · Genre: Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology · 4 chapters