ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that in order to appreciate correctly the psychological significance of the tendency towards inbreeding, this phenomenon must be ranged with certain other manifestations. Closely akin to the first extreme is the inclination towards cousins and other cognate members of the family. A neurotic patient of fair, north German type, showed the strongest aversion to women of the same type. Nothing in a woman was permitted to remind him of his original love-object, his mother. S. Freud's most investigations have drawn attention to certain similarities in the psychic life of neurotics and of primitive peoples. In this connection the most important thing to remember is the exaggerated phobia of incest to be found both in neurotics and in primitive peoples. The most effective and far-reaching measure of this kind is an institution existing in many primitive tribes, called exogamy. It prohibits sexual relations not merely between close relatives but even between members of the same tribe.
