Abstract
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS AND MOTHER-RIGHT.-In Psyche for January, Dr. B. Malinowski concludes his examina tion of the applicability of the Freudian theory of the GEdipus complex to a society organised on a matri-lineal basis. In his previous contribution to this subject {Psyche, April 1924) it was shown that whereas under the patria potestas the conflict is concerned with father and mother, in the matrilineal family of the Trobriands, it affects the sister and the mother's brother. Turning now to the question of disease and perversion, it appears that among the Trobrianders, where sexual desires are allowed a natural outlet at an early age, perversions and neurotic affections are comparatively rare, while in the Amphletts, where sexual license is repressed, they occur with frequency. The evidence of dreams, distinguishing “free dreams” “from” “official dreams” of a divinatory or magical character, points to repressed desire in the direction of the sister. This form of incest is regarded with such horror that at first sight it might appear never to occur, but careful investigation has revealed that it does exist. Both obscenity and myth bear this out. Abuse by attribution of mother and sister incest, though both actions are abhorrent to the Trobriand mind, in the degree of resentment it arouses indicates that there is a real temptation to break the strong taboo against the sister. In the same way, through out the myths of the Trobrianders there runs a strong matrilineal complex; in the tales of origin, no father appears, and when a male member of the family is mentioned in such a manner as to indicate a conflict of some kind, it is the maternal uncle.
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Research Items. Nature 115, 278–280 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115278a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115278a0