Totem and Taboo (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and as a child moved with his parents to Vienna. He undertook the study and treatment of patients with neurological and emotional disorders, and in that setting he began to develop the theory and technique of psychoanalysis. Among his major writings were The Interpretation of Dreams, Three Essays in the Theory of Sexuality, and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in 1930. Finally, after the German absorption of Austria in 1938, Freud, by then old and ill, moved to London to escape the Nazis' anti-Semitic persecution. The next year, he died, widely celebrated as the founder of the international psychoanalytic movement.

Totem and Taboo (1913) stands as a characteristic example of Sigmund Freud's controversial genius. Written with his typical elegance of style, persuasive reasoning, and ingenuity of rhetoric, the book is at once a work of art and a pioneering effort to extend the reach of psychology into the broader realm of social science. Totem and Taboo remains a founding text for the field of psychoanalytic anthropology.