The Primitive Mind And Modern Civilization

Book excerpt: First Published in 1999. This is Volume I of six of a series on Anthropology and Psychology. Written in 1931, this book looks at the psychology of the 'primitive' or a man who represents the common stuff of human nature, in an attempt to close the divide between anthropology and psychology. Two hypotheses, the existence and activity of a racial unconscious as the fundamental basis of cultural phenomena, and the overwhelming importance of a gregarious instinct in the development of society are presented in this book.