Chapter 4. The Return of Totemism in Childhood of Totem and Taboo - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

real (as discussed in the third essay). If so, then the impulse or instinct to kill the father would be enough to produce the moral reaction that created totem and taboo.

Freud concludes by returning to the comparison of primitive people with neurotics, which led him into the present discussions. Whilst he has found striking similarities, he also notes that the analogy between them must not influence thought too far. There are distinctions too, which must be borne in mind. Whilst the difference that we make between thinking and doing, appears to be absent in both of them, neurotics are above all, inhibited in their actions, with them the thought is a complete substitute for the deed. Primitive men, on the other hand, are uninhibited, thought passes directly into action - with them it is rather the deed that is a substitute for the thought. Similarly, with the relationship he has identified between taboo and the Oedipus complex, not only their similarities but also their differences must be borne in mind.