ABSTRACT
Incest was at the heart of Freud's theory. Freud maintained that the primordial sexual desire in human beings for close relatives was the major feature of the human mind. He maintained that civilization requires the suppression of this sexual desire aimed at relatives for its survival and that this suppression was the core feature of neurosis, the pathology of normal volition. Psychoanalysis, the system of thought developed by Freud, has also been a major topic in the intellectual history of the last century. It is interesting that Freud's ideas are still highly controversial. On the one hand, his ideas have a stubborn appeal for many. On the other hand, there is virtually an industry in Freud-bashing. One has to note that although every society regulates sexual conduct, there was a special problem in connection with Jewish sexual and marital practices. For one of the major features of Jewish law was the prohibition against marriage with non-Jews.
