Animism is, in its narrower sense, the doctrine of souls, and, in its wider sense, the doctrine of spiritual beings in general. The term ‘animatism’ has also been used to denote the theory of the living character of what appear to us to be inanimate objects. Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P 75
They (Primitive man) people the world with innumerable spiritual beings both benevolent and malignant; and these spirits and demons they regard as the causes of natural phenomena and they believe that not only animals and plants but all the inanimate objects in the world are animated by them.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P76
For primitive peoples believe that similar spirits inhabits human individuals. These souls, which live in human beings, can leave their habitations and migrate into other human beings; they are the vehicles of mental activities and are to certain extent independent of their bodies.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P76
It has been regarded as perfectly natural and not in the least puzzling that primitive man should have reacted to the phenomena which aroused his speculations by forming the idea of the soul and then of extending it to objects in the external world. The justification for attributing life to inanimate objects was already stated by Hume in his Natural History of Religion [Section III]: ‘There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious’.
Animism is a system of thought. It does not merely give an explanation of a particular phenomenon, but allows us to grasp the whole universe as a single unity from a single point of view. The human race, have in the course of ages, developed three such systems of thought – three great pictures of the universe: animistic (or mythological), religious and scientific. Of these, animism, the first to be created, is perhaps the one which is most consistent and exhaustive and which gives a truly complete explanation of the nature of the universe.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P 77
It is not to be supposed that men were inspired to create their first system of the universe by pure speculative curiosity. The practical need for controlling the world must have played its part. So we are not surprised to learn that, hand in hand with the animistic system, there went a body of instructions upon how to obtain mastery over men, beasts and things – or rather, over their spirits. These instructions go by the names of ‘sorcery’ and ‘magic’
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P78
In these last, as in so many other instances of the workings of magic, the element of distance is disregarded; in other words, telepathy is taken for granted. If I wish for it to rain, I have only to do something that looks like rain or is reminiscent of rain.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P 81
His wishes are accompanied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later destined to alter the whole face of the earth in order to satisfy his wishes. The motor impulse is at first employed to give a representation of the satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the satisfaction by means of what might be described as motor hallucinations. This kind of representation of a satisfied wish is quite comparable to child play
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Totem and
Taboo – P84
A mans name is a principal component of his personality, perhaps even a portion of his soul. The fact of a primitive man bearing the same name as an animal must lead him to assume the existence of a mysterious and significant bond himself and that particular species of animal. What other bond could it be than one of blood relationship?
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Return to Totemism in Childhood – P 112
The totem, according to this view, represented a safe place of refuge in which the soul could be deposited and so escape the dangers which threatened it. When a primitive man had deposited his soul in his totem he himself was invulnerable, and he naturally avoided doing any injury to the receptacle of his soul.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Return to Totemism in Childhood P – 116
Soul animals (Birds, Snakes, Lizards and mice) are appropriate receptacles of souls which have left the body, on account of their rapid movements or flight through the air or other qualities likely to produce surprise or alarm. Totem animals are derived from the transformations of the ‘breath-soul’ into animals. Thus totemism is directly connected with the belief in spirits, that is to say with animism.
Freud, Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought. Return to Totemism in Childhood P119
The meaning of ‘taboo’, as we see it, diverges into two contrary directions. To us it means, on the one hand, ‘sacred’, ‘consecrated’, and on the other ‘uncanny’, ‘dangerous’, ‘forbidden’, ‘unclean’.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P 18
‘Various classes of taboo in the wider sense may be distinguished: (i) natural or direct, the result of mana (mysterious power) inherent in a person or thing; (ii) communicated or indirect, equally the result of mana, but (a) acquired or (b) imposed by a priest, chief or other person; (iii) intermediate….
Totem and Taboo – Freud P19
The source of taboo is attributed to a peculiar magical power which is inherent in persons and spirits and can be conveyed by them through the medium of inanimate objects. ‘Persons or things which are regarded as taboo may be compared to objects charged with electricity; they are the seat of a tremendous power which is transmissible by contact, and may be liberated with destructive effect if the organisms which provoke its discharge are too weak to resist it; the result of a violation of a taboo depends partly on the strength of the magical influence inherent in the taboo object or person, partly on the strength of the opposing mana of the violator of the taboo.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P20
Behind all these prohibitions there seems to be something in the nature of a theory that they are necessary because certain persons and things are charged with a dangerous power….
Totem and Taboo – Freud P21
The third class of taboos, which are imposed on tress, plants, houses and localities, are less stable. They appear to follow a rule that anything that is uncanny or provokes dread for any reason becomes subject to taboo.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P23
Taboo is originally nothing other than the objectified fear of the “demonic” power which is believed to lie hidden in a tabooed object. The taboo prohibits anything that may provoke that power and commands that, if it has been injured, whether wittingly or unwittingly, the demon’s vengeance must be averted.
Little by little, we are told, taboo then grows into a force with a basis of its own, independent of its belief in demons. It develops into the rule of custom and tradition and finally of law.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P24
According to Wundt, this original characteristic of taboo – the belief in a ‘demonic’ power which lies hidden in an object and which, if the object is touched or used unlawfully, takes its vengeance by casting a spell over the wrong-doer – is still wholly and solely ‘objectified fear’.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P25
The prohibition does not merely apply to immediate physical contact but has an extent as wide as the metaphorical phrase ‘to come in contact with’. Anything that directs the patients thoughts to the forbidden object, anything that brings him into intellectual contact with it, is just as much prohibited as direct physical contact. This same extension also occurs in the case of taboo.
Totem and Taboo – Freud P27
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