The Assault on Truth
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory is a book by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in which the author argues that Sigmund Freud deliberately suppressed his early hypothesis, known as the seduction theory, that hysteria is caused by sexual abuse during infancy, because he refused to believe that children are the victims of sexual violence and abuse within their own families. Masson reached this conclusion while he had access to some of Freud's unpublished letters as projects director of the Sigmund Freud Archives. The Assault on Truth was first published in 1984, and several revised editions have since been published.
The book aroused massive publicity and controversy. It received many negative reviews, several of which rejected Masson's reading of psychoanalytic history, was condemned by reviewers within the psychoanalytic profession, and came to be seen as the latest in a series of attacks on psychoanalysis and an expression of a widespread "anti-Freudian mood". Its overall reception has been described as mixed. Some feminists endorsed Masson's conclusions and other commentators have seen merit in his book despite its failings. Masson has been criticized for maintaining without evidence that the seduction theory was correct, for his discussion of Freud's treatment of his patient Emma Eckstein, for suggesting that children are by nature innocent and asexual, and for taking part in a reaction against the sexual revolution. Masson has also been blamed for encouraging the recovered memory movement by implying that a collective effort to retrieve painful memories of incest was required, although he has rejected the accusation as unfounded.
