primitivism

FREUD, SMITH, AND FEUER BACH ON SACRIFICE.

Authors:

Levitt, Cyril1 levittc@mcmaster.ca

Source:

Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis. 2010, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p20-42. 23p.

Document Type:

Article

Subject Terms:

*THEORY
*IDEA (Philosophy)
*PRIMITIVISM

People:

FREUD, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Psychology
SMITH, W. Robertson (William Robertson), 1846-1894
FEUERBACH, Ludwig, 1804-1872

Abstract (English):

This paper concerns the origins, significance, and social context of the theory of sacrifice embraced by Freud in Totem and Taboo. Freud attributed the theory to William Robertson Smith (1889/1927) but Ludwig Feuerbach, whose works Freud had intensively studied as a student, had outlined the major points of "Smith's" theory in 1862. Had Freud read Feuerbach's essay and, if so, what was the significance of his " forgetting" it? We compare the main points in Feuerbach and Smith in relation to Freud's ideas. Accordingly, we consider aspects of sacrifice and relate them to Freud's notions of orality, incorporation, and identification, to ambivalence and to the relationship of "primitivism" and civilization in the social and cultural anthropology of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The centrality of "blood" in sacrifice is seen both as a contribution to and an expression of the cultural trends of vampirism in fiction, and the Protestant revivalism of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levitt, C. (2010). FREUD, SMITH, AND FEUER BACH ON SACRIFICE. Canadian Journal Of Psychoanalysis, 18(1), 20-42.