Talcott Parsons and the Totem-Taboo Problematic

• In Event: 40212 - Open Call: Section on History of Sociology and Social Thought Paper Session

Abstract

In this paper I examine five psychoanalytically informed essays that the American sociologist, Talcott Parsons, published during the 1950s. It is of no small significance that they were produced during the time that Parsons was formulating the general theory of action. I refer to them as the ‘totem-taboo thematic essays’ given that they deal with many of the intertwined problematics that the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, confronted in his controversial book, Totem and Taboo. I first describe the circumstances in which Parsons initially encountered Freud’s totem-taboo thesis in 1925. I then briefly consider his involvement in building action theory, that produced a unique conceptual framework by which to interpret classical psychoanalysis. Next, I look at Parsons’s modifications of Freud’s propositions in the context of his theorizing about social systems and cultural values. In the fourth and longest section, I closely examine the totem-taboo themed essays in which Parsons investigated many of the central issues in Totem and Taboo. Finally, I argue that in his totem-taboo thematic essays Parsons presents a true theoretical articulation between psychic reality and sociocultural reality.

Author

• A. Javier Trevino, Wheaton College