This landmark collection of essays by the father of psychoanalysis explores the conflict between primitive feelings and the demands of civilization. Freud identifies a strong unconscious inclination as the basis of taboo, a forbidden behavior, and traces its earliest appearance to the childhood development of totemism.

This landmark collection of essays by the father of psychoanalysis explores the conflict between primitive feelings and the demands of civilization. Freud identifies a strong unconscious inclination as the basis of taboo, a forbidden behavior, and traces its earliest appearance to the childhood development of totemism.

Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders—but not because of what it withholds from some and gives to others. Capitalism dominates, Todd McGowan argues, because it mimics the structure of our desire while hiding the trauma that the system inflicts upon it. People from all backgrounds enjoy what capital...(展开全部)

In the songs and bubble feeding of humpback whales; in young killer whales learning to knock a seal from an ice floe in the same way their mother does; and in the use of sea sponges by the dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia, to protect their beaks while foraging for fish, we find clear examples of the transmission of information among cetaceans. Just as human cultures pass on lan...(展开全部)

Is cleanliness next to godliness? What does such a concept really mean? Why does it recur as a universal theme across all societies? And what are the implications for the unclean? In Purity and Danger Mary Douglas identifies the concern for purity as a key theme at the heart of every society. In lively and lucid prose she explains its relevance for every reader by revealing its...(展开全部)

Is cleanliness next to godliness? What does such a concept really mean? Why does it recur as a universal theme across all societies? And what are the implications for the unclean? In Purity and Danger Mary Douglas identifies the concern for purity as a key theme at the heart of every society. In lively and lucid prose she explains its relevance for every reader by revealing its...(展开全部)