Psychology
Totem and Taboo
CevvelaPsychology
Totem and Taboo
Sigmund Freud · Say Yayınları · 1913
6
Cevvela Score
7.4 (1.387 oy)
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Summary
A shattering psychoanalytic text that examines the origins of religion, morality and civilization through the totem beliefs and incest taboos of primitive tribes, claiming that social conscience and religion were born from the myth of the “primal father” being killed and devoured by his sons (the Oedipus complex).
Quotes from Cevvela
“Conscience is nothing other than our own aggression turned back upon ourselves.”
“People make taboos out of exactly what they secretly want most to do.”
“The idea of God is an exalted and terrifying copy of the murdered primal father.”
“Civilization is built on murder and on the sense of guilt.”
“Every repressed desire grows wilder still in the unconscious.”
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Reader Score: 7.4 / 10(1.387 votes)
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Freud tears the shining mask off civilization once again and shows the cannibalism beneath it. He says that the values we call “sacred,” or that inner voice we call “conscience,” did not come down from the heavens but were born of primitive man’s own guilt. While Cevvela brings a person face to face with their gem, it also asks them to fight their own taboos. You realize that the moral rules and taboos restricting you are proof of how greatly you fear your own instincts, and you feel disgust at the dark corners of your mind. A taboo is forbidden not because it is untouchable, but because it is the most desired thing of all.