Abstract

In the final essay of Totem and Taboo, Freud infamously claims that civilization began when a band of brothers brutally murdered their father. This postulation leads Freud to conclude that "the beginnings of religion, morals, society and art converge in the Oedipus complex,"1 and, accordingly, most readers, regardless of their argument, presuppose that the text depicts a "fundamental oedipal revolt."2 This is how Peter Gay characterizes the action of Totem and Taboo in his short introduction to the Norton Standard Edition, and this is how the text is generally remembered. While we may forget the moves of Freud's argument and the details of his historical narrative—not to mention the first three essays of the ..