Freud's Seduction Theory and its Rehabilitation: A Saga of one Mistake after Another

Abstract

It is argued that Freud's seduction theory was so manifestly false that it was unlikely that his contemporaries would accept it or that he would retain it for very long. It is further argued that the relatively successful attempt by Masson and others to rehabilitate the theory was achieved partly by exploiting several myths, such as the supposed irrational and hostile manner in which Freud and his theory were received, but was achieved mainly by presenting a version of the seduction theory that was so shorn of its implausible aspects that it posited little more than that child sexual abuse can be pathogenic; in a crucial way, it acknowledged neither the central etiological role given to unconscious memories nor the therapeutic requirement of making them conscious. Once the seduction theory was rehabilitated, however, these original aspects were reclaimed and they served to strengthen the rationale for giving “memory recovery” a central role in therapy.