Totem and Taboo

Originally published in 1913, this classic treatise by Sigmund Freud applies psychoanalytic theory to the anthropological study of primitive peoples in order to explain the invention of religion, incest taboos, and civilization itself. As controversial as it has been influential, its impact continues to be felt a century after its initial publication. In a new foreword, the historian Robert Kenny puts the work in context and suggests why it remains iconic. Dr. Kenny in an Australian Research Council fellow at La Trobe University currently researching the relationship between psychology and anthropology. His The Lamb Enters the Dreaming won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History in 2008.