Auto Meme Taboo 2013 Anyone who has violated a taboo becomes taboo himself because he possesses the dangerous quality of tempting others to follow his example: why should he be allowed to do what is forbidden to others? Thus he is truly contagious in that every example encourages imitation, and for that reason he himself must be shunned. Sigmund Freud Totem and Taboo: Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics