The ASSAULT ON TRUTH: FREUD'S SUPPRESSION OF THE SEDUCTION THEORY [Paperback]

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Did Freud hide the truth about child sexual abuse? Here, Masson provides a startling, provocative, and devastating examination of the development of modern psychoanalysis, and argues that Freud's own suppressed theories demand a reevaluation of the profession as a whole.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A Watergate of the psyche.”
–The New York Times Book Review

With a new introduction by the author
“A LAVISHLY DOCUMENTED, CAREFULLY REASONED WORK, WRITTEN IN A STRAIGHTFORWARD, REASONABLE STYLE.”
–The Nation


“INTRIGUING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING . . . A FASCINATING DETECTIVE-LIKE STORY.”
–Sunday Times (London)

“MASSON’S SCHOLARSHIP IS IMPECCABLE.”
–Los Angeles Times


More praise for Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
and The Assault on Truth

“One need not follow Masson’s rabid acceptance of a tightly construed [seduction] theory to regret, with him, Freud’s emotional withdrawal from social criticism. . . . Jeffrey Masson has raised important historical questions.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“Newly revealed letters and long-secret documents offer further indications of Sigmund Freud’s anguish over his first major theory, new evidence of efforts to cover up that anguish, and provide new information about the life of the man himself.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“When the furor subsides, Masson’s book will take its rightful place in the annals of psychoanalytic critique; not the bomb that destroyed the whole building, but part of the wave that is eroding the basic foundation.”
–Ms.

“A solid expose that reads like a psychological detective thriller. . . . This brilliant, meticulously researched book probes what many see as the failure of psychoanalysis to confront the real world.”
–Publishers Weekly



“INTRIGUING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING . . . A FASCINATING DETECTIVE-LIKE STORY.”
–Sunday Times (London)

“MASSON’S SCHOLARSHIP IS IMPECCABLE.”
–Los Angeles Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

In 1896, Sigmund Freud presented his revolutionary ?seduction theory,? arguing that acts of sexual abuse and violence inflicted on children are the direct cause of adult mental illness. Nine years later, Freud completely reversed his position, insisting that these sexual memories were actually fantasies that never happened. Why did Freud retract the seduction theory? And why has the psychoanalytic community gone to such lengths to conceal that retraction? In this landmark book, drawing on his unique access to formerly sealed and hidden papers, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson dares to uncover the truth about this critical turning point in Freud?s career and its enduring impact on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis.

The Assault on Truth reveals a reality that neither Freud nor his followers could bear to face. Bracing in its honesty, gripping its revelations, this is the book that prompted Masson?s break with the psychoanalytic community?and launched his subsequent brilliant career as an independent thinker and writer. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671025716
• ISBN-13: 978-0671025717
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,676,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Masson has had at least four lives: first as a boy raised to become a "spiritual leader" (see his denunciation of such a life in My Father's Guru). While in the middle of his disillusion, he became a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto. At the same time he trained to become a Freudian analyst. Upon graduation he became Projects Director of the Freud Archives, and was scheduled to move into Freud's house in London when fate intervened: Masson found documents which seemed to show that Freud was right in believing that many women had been sexually abused as children, and that he was wrong to give up this belief, perhaps impelled by societal displeasure at his discoveries. Saying this publicly turned Masson into a psychoanalytic pariah, and he gave up both his professorship and his analytic career to delve into the far more fascinating world of animal emotions. Two of his books, WHEN ELEPHANTS WEEP and DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE, were New York Times best-sellers. He became vegetarian as a result of his research, and later, when he looked into the feelings of farm animals, he became even stricter, and no longer eats or uses any animal product (vegan). Harpercollins published his most recent book: THE DOG WHO COULDN'T STOP LOVING: HOW DOGS HAVE CAPTURED OUR HEARTS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. He lives on a beach in New Zealand with his two sons, Ilan and Manu, and his German wife, Leila, a pediatrician who works with children on the autistic spectrum (using the bio-medical approach), Benjy, a golden lab, and three cats. They often travel to the States, Europe, and Australia. He is now fascinated in the "us/them" phenomenon, between humans but also between humans and animals.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those interested in the "politics" of childhood sexual abuse., April 26, 2007

By 

Robert Johnson (Bend, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory (Paperback)

If you have managed to work through the various reviews of this book, you are likely becoming aware that there must be something fairly controversial surrounding the nature of its subject matter. Masson was for a time, the curator of the Freud archives, and thus had access to many as yet unpublished, publicly sealed, or previously censored letters Freud wrote to friends. He also had access to Freud's personal copies of the important books and academic papers of the time. If anything, the level of scholarship involved in preparing this book goes beyond the simply impressive.

So...what's all the fuss ? After all, this book is over 20 years old now.

In a word : The seemingly never ending and often inexplicably volatile controversy surrounding adult memories of childhood sexual abuse. In April 1896 a young and knowingly courageous Freud read a paper before his colleges in Vienna setting forth in detail the then revolutionary position that such traumatic events actually took place, that they were common, and that they were at the root of later serious mental heath problems. This contention was enough to cause him to be almost instantaneously ostracized by every respected psychiatric luminary of the day. A generation later, one of his best friends and students made the same contentions, and suffered the same fate. As the nature of our own authors investigations became clear, he was fired from his position as curator of the Freud archives.

Freud himself then went on to abandon his contentions, and in a move which uncannily mirrors some current positions on the subject, changed his views a the stance in which all such adult memories were attributed to psychological fantasy or if from children, outright or manipulative lies.

A true page-turner, and absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in the quixotic history and professional politics surrounding the mental health professions' strange and ongoing internal struggle with the established reality of childhood sexual abuse and its potential influence on later life.

24 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Is the book itself an assault on truth?, March 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Edmonton, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The ASSAULT ON TRUTH: FREUD'S SUPPRESSION OF THE SEDUCTION THEORY (Paperback)

I just loved this book when I first read it several years ago. Freuds early notion that hysteria was caused by repressed memories of sexual abuse (known as the seduction theory) made so much more sense than his later notion that hysteria was caused by repressed memories of incestuous desires. Only later, when hearing that many therapists were carelessly implanting false memories of sexual abuse in their patients and that they had drawn inspiration for this type of therapy from Masson, did I look more closely at what he had written. What I found was enlightening.

For example, in describing Freuds approach toward his patients at the time of the seduction theory, Masson (1984) claimed that Freud listened and understood and gave them permission to remember and speak of these terrible events (p. 9). Compare this to how Freud really described his therapy around that time:

The work keeps on coming to a stop and they keep on maintaining that this time nothing has occurred to them. We must not believe what they say, we must always assume, and tell them, too, that they have kept something back because they thought it unimportant or found it distressing. We must insist on this, we must repeat the pressure and represent ourselves as infallible, till at last we are really told something. (from Studies on Hysteria).

Obviously, Freud did a bit more than just listen and understand and give them permission to remember and speak. Consider too, Massons claim in the postscript to the present edition that we do not at present possess, and probably never will, enough documentary evidence of how, precisely, Freud conducted his therapy in the early days, say between 1895 and 1900 (p. 321). Examine then the following passage from a letter written by Freud to a colleague in 1896:

-----------------

She is suffering from eczema around her mouth and from lesions that do not heal in the corners of her mouth. During the night her saliva periodically accumulates, after which the lesions appear. In childhood (12 years) her speech inhibitions appeared for the first time when, with a full mouth, she was fleeing from a woman teacher. Her father has a similarly explosive speech, as though his mouth were full.

Habemus papum! [We have a Pope!  equivalent to Eureka!]

When I thrust the explanation at her [that her father had sexually abused her], she was at first won over; then she committed the folly of questioning the old man himself, who at the very first intimation exclaimed indignantly, Are you implying that I was the one? and swore a holy oath to his innocence.

She is now in the throes of the most vehement resistance, claims to believe him, but attests to her identification with him by having become dishonest and swearing false oaths. I have threatened to send her away and in the process convinced myself that she has already gained a good deal of certainty which she is reluctant to acknowledge.

She has never felt as well as on the day when I made the disclosure to her. In order to facilitate the work, I am hoping she will feel miserable again.

The pain in her leg appears to have come from her mother. (from Masson, J. M. [Ed. & Trans.]. 1985, The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fleiss, 1887-1904. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 220-221)

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This letter is the most explicit example we have of Freuds obviously coercive approach to uncovering memories of sexual abuse in his early patients. (Interestingly, it was written following publication of an article in which Freud argued that he was unable to force false memories on his patients.) Yet Masson, who is clearly aware of this letters existence since he edited the book in which it was first published, never discusses it. Small wonder, since it effectively undermines his entire thesis about the kinder, gentler Freud who once helped his patients cope with memories of sexual abuse.

As for Massons brief review of recent evidence confirming the validity of recovered memories, it is not nearly so clearcut as he would have you believe. In other words, as with the rest of the book, the level of scholarship leaves much to be desired.

18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A modern morality tale, March 3, 1999

By 

A. H. Esterson (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The ASSAULT ON TRUTH: FREUD'S SUPPRESSION OF THE SEDUCTION THEORY (Paperback)

This book is both very plausible and very misleading. The original documents show that, contrary to the traditional story of the seduction theory, the patients in question did not tell Freud they had been sexually abused by their fathers. Freud used symbolic interpretation of patients' symptoms -- which he took to "correspond to the sensory content of the infantile [sexual] scenes" -- to reconstruct supposed childhood incidents, and employed a coercive procedure (the "pressure technique") to try to induce his patients to "reproduce" the supposed "scenes" from their unconscious. In 1896 he wrote that "before they come for analysis the patients know nothing about these [sexual] scenes. They are indignant as a rule if we warn them such scenes are going to emerge. Only the strongest compulsion of the treatment can induce them to embark on a reproduction of them." He also wrote that the patients "have no feeling of remembering the scenes" and "assure me emphatically of their unbelief". In other words, it was Freud himself who, on the basis of preconceived theory, was convinced that his patients (including six men) had experienced sexual molestation, and his patients who were unbelieving! In his Postscript to the 1998 edition Masson claims that the Fliess correspondence indicates that Freud had both patients who recovered memories of abuse in therapy and those who had always remembered the abuse. In fact in the reports to Fliess in the period in question there is only one unequivocal case of the latter. Moreover, Freud himself contradicts Masson's claim: "With our patients, those memories [of childhood molestation] are never conscious ... only so long as, and in so far as, they are unconscious are they able to create and maintain hysterical symptoms." Astonishingly, Masson has failed to appreciate that the whole point of the seduction theory was that the supposed memories had to be unconscious if they were to be pathogenic. Again, the two supposed instances of objective corroboration of sexual abuse in early childhood have been shown not to stand up to close scrutiny by elementary standards of evidence. And in regard to Masson's reassuring words about Freud's having explicitly addressed the issue of forcing the "sexual scenes" on his patients, as with the story that Freud was ostracized by his colleagues (refuted by historians of science Ellenberger and Sulloway) Masson is a credulous victim of Freud's renowned persuasive rhetoric.