Los tabúes del mundo

Should we break down all taboos? Are taboo and freedom incompatible? What role did they play in the past and what role do they play today? Do taboos mark necessary moral limits and give meaning to life or are they a mere mechanism of repression? Can we really live without taboos? Massimo Recalcati addresses in this book the social function of taboos in relation to sexuality, family ties, love, desires and death. It does so from examples from everyday life and also from mythology and literature: from Oedipus to Hamlet, from the sacrifice of Isaac to Medea, from Cain to Don Juan, from Dostoevsky to Sartre, from Beckett to Calvin, from Freud to Lacan...