The Oedipus Complex: Focus of the Psychoanalysis-Anthropology Debate

This book examines the contentious relationship between psychoanalysis and anthropology as it has played out in disputes surrounding the Oedipus complex. Here, Éric Smadja explores the complicated historical and epistemological conditions leading up to the emergence of the conflict between the two disciplines. He considers the origins of each science, the "creation" of the Oedipus complex, and the place, role and influence of Freud’s key and controversial work Totem and Taboo, both in the h...