Róheim was analysed by Sándor Ferenczi and became a training analyst with the Budapest Institute of Psychoanalysis.
While unable to fit comfortably into academic anthropological circles in the U.S. — despite receiving support from figures like Margaret Mead and Edward Sapir[3] — Róheim published prolifically there, and taught through a privately organised seminar.
Róheim is best known for his (and his wife Ilonka's) nine-month stay at or near Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission in central Australia in 1929 — a trip which generated great interest in psychoanalytic circles[why?
His research was used to support Ernest Jones in his debate with Bronislaw Malinowski over the existence of the Oedipus complex in matrilineal societies.
His theory of culture stressed its rootedness in the long period of juvenile dependence in humans, which allowed for the possibility of exploration and play.