Abstract
To mark the occasion of Sigmund Freud's eightieth birthday on May 6, Dr. Geza Roheim, perhaps the most distinguished, and certainly the most experienced exponent of the application of Freud's theories to field investigation in anthropology, evaluates in Man of May his master's contribution to the principles of research among primitive peoples. It is interesting to note that Dr. Roheim, pointing to the fact that the anthropologist's criticism of Freud has been directed mainly against his version of the ‘primitive horde’ or Cyclopean family, does not himself believe that psycho-analytic anthropology stands or falls with this view of human origins. This is explained in part by Dr. Roheim's general position. Not only does he hold that Freud's minor papers would explain certain problems to the anthropologist, if the anthropologist would only grasp these explanations; but also he maintains that the real significance of Freud for the anthropologist does not lie in his contributions to anthropology. The explanation of the apparent paradox is that he stresses Freud's technique as his greatest contribution to the science. In the employment of psycho-analysis he has elaborated a method to explain personality. If, as is now admitted on an overwhelming mass of evidence, this method is valid as applied to Europeans, we must believe a priori that it is applicable at least as a method of investigation to savages, the fundamental psychological unity of mankind being taken for granted. Further, he goes on to point out, as a matter of practice it has been abundantly demonstrated that the dreams of primitive people can be analysed according to the same method and with the same results as the dreams of Europeans. Finally, perhaps the most important point in relation to understanding of the method, Dr. Roheim indicates in response to criticism from the ‘functional’ school, how and in what sense the term ‘neurosis' is no £ merely individual, but is to be taken as applicable to the group.
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Freud and the Anthropologist. Nature 137, 859 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137859b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137859b0