The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory

In 1896, Sigmund Freud presented his revolutionary “seduction theory,” arguing that childhood sexual abuse directly caused adult mental illness. Just nine years later, he completely reversed this stance, insisting these traumatic memories were mere fantasies. Why did Freud retract his original theory? And why has the psychoanalytic community gone to such lengths to conceal this critical reversal?

In the landmark book The Assault on Truth, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson draws on unique access to f...