Editing Sigmund Freud (section)

===Seduction theory===
{{main|Freud's seduction theory}}
In the early 1890s, Freud used a form of treatment based on the one that Breuer had described to him, modified by what he called his "pressure technique" and his newly developed analytic technique of interpretation and reconstruction. According to Freud's later accounts of this period, as a result of his use of this procedure, most of his patients in the mid-1890s reported early [[childhood sexual abuse]]. He believed these accounts, which he used as the basis for his [[Freud's seduction theory|seduction theory]], but then he came to believe that some of them were fantasies. He explained these at first as having the function of "fending off" memories of infantile masturbation, but in later years he wrote that they represented Oedipal fantasies, stemming from innate [[Drive theory|drives]] that are sexual and destructive in nature.<ref>Freud, ''Standard Edition'', vol. 7, 1906, p. 274; ''S.E. 14'', 1914, p. 18; '' S.E. 20'', 1925, p. 34; ''S.E. 22'', 1933, p. 120; Schimek, J. G. (1987), "Fact and Fantasy in the Seduction Theory: A Historical Review". ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'', xxxv: 937–65; {{Cite journal |last=Esterson |first=Allen |year=1998 |title=Jeffrey Masson and Freud's seduction theory: a new fable based on old myths |url=http://human-nature.com/esterson |url-status=live |journal=History of the Human Sciences |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1177/095269519801100101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103235211/http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/ |archive-date=3 November 2008 |s2cid=170827479}}</ref>

Another version of events focuses on Freud's proposing that unconscious memories of infantile sexual abuse were at the root of the psychoneuroses in letters to Fliess in October 1895, before he reported that he had actually discovered such abuse among his patients.<ref>Masson (ed.), 1985, pp. 141, 144. Esterson, Allen (1998), "Jeffrey Masson and Freud's seduction theory: a new fable based on old myths". ''History of the Human Sciences'', 11 (1), {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080828102024/http://www.esterson.org/Masson_and_Freuds_seduction_theory.htm pp. 1–21]}}</ref> In the first half of 1896, Freud published three papers, which led to his [[Freud's seduction theory|seduction theory]], stating that he had uncovered, in all of his current patients, deeply repressed memories of sexual abuse in early childhood.<ref>Freud, ''Standard Edition 3'', (1896a), (1896b), (1896c); Israëls, Han & Schatzman, Morton (1993), [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0957154X9300401302?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.4 "The seduction theory"]. ''History of Psychiatry'', iv: 23–59; Esterson, Allen (1998).</ref><ref>Schatzman, Morton. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13318134-600-freud-who-seduced-whom/#:~:text=The%20seduction%20theory%20involved%20further,father%2C%20in%20his%201933%20version. "Freud: who seduced whom?"]. ''New Scientist'', 21 March 1992.</ref> In these papers, Freud recorded that his patients were not consciously aware of these memories, and must therefore be present as ''unconscious memories'' if they were to result in hysterical symptoms or obsessional neurosis. The patients were subjected to considerable pressure to "reproduce" infantile sexual abuse "scenes" that Freud was convinced had been repressed into the unconscious.<ref>Freud, Sigmund (1896c). The Aetiology of Hysteria. ''Standard Edition'', Vol. 3, p. 204; Schimek, J. G. (1987). "Fact and Fantasy in the Seduction Theory: A Historical Review". ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'', xxxv: 937–65; Toews, J. E. (1991). "Historicizing Psychoanalysis: Freud in His Time and for Our Time", ''Journal of Modern History'', vol. 63 (pp. 504–45), p. 510, n. 12; McNally, R. J. ''Remembering Trauma'', Harvard University Press, 1993, pp. 159–69.</ref> Patients were generally unconvinced that their experiences of Freud's clinical procedures indicated actual sexual abuse. He reported that even after a supposed "reproduction" of sexual scenes the patients assured him emphatically of their disbelief.<ref>Freud, ''Standard Edition 3'', 1896c, pp. 204, 211; Schimek, J. G. (1987); Esterson, Allen (1998); Eissler, 2001, pp. 114–15; McNally, R. J. (2003).</ref>

As well as his pressure technique, Freud's clinical procedures involved analytic inference and the symbolic interpretation of symptoms to trace back to memories of infantile sexual abuse.<ref>Freud, ''Standard Edition 3'', 1896c, pp. 191–93; Cioffi, Frank. (1998 [1973]). Was Freud a Liar? ''Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience.'' Chicago: Open Court, pp. 199–204; Schimek, J. G. (1987); Esterson, Allen (1998); McNally, (2003), pp, 159–69.</ref> His claim of one hundred percent confirmation of his theory only served to reinforce previously expressed reservations from his colleagues about the validity of findings obtained through his suggestive techniques.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Borch-Jacobsen |first=Mikkel |year=1996 |title=Neurotica: Freud and the Seduction Theory. ''October'', vol. 76, Spring 1996, MIT, pp. 15–43; Hergenhahn, B.R. (1997), ''An Introduction to the History of Psychology'', Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, pp. 484–485; Esterson, Allen (2002). The myth of Freud's ostracism by the medical community in 1896–1905: Jeffrey Masson's Assault on Truth |url=http://www.esterson.org/Myth_of_Freuds_ostracism.htm |url-status=usurped |journal=History of Psychology |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=115–34 |doi=10.1037/1093-4510.5.2.115 |pmid=12096757 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828101945/http://www.esterson.org/Myth_of_Freuds_ostracism.htm |archive-date=28 August 2008}}</ref> Freud subsequently showed inconsistency as to whether his seduction theory was still compatible with his later findings.<ref name="thepsychologist">Andrews, B., and Brewin, C. [http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-13/edition-12/what-did-freud-get-right-0 ''What did Freud get right?'', The psychologist, December 2000, page 606] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409174924/http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-13/edition-12/what-did-freud-get-right-0 |date=9 April 2015 }}</ref> In an addendum to ''The Aetiology of Hysteria'' he stated: "All this is true [the sexual abuse of children], but it must be remembered that at the time I wrote it I had not yet freed myself from my overvaluation of reality and my low valuation of phantasy".<ref>Freud, S. 1924/1961, p. 204 ''The aetiology of hysteria''. In J. Strachey (ed. and trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 3, pp. 189–224). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1896, addendum originally published 1924)</ref> Some years later Freud explicitly rejected the claim of his colleague Ferenczi that his patients' reports of sexual molestation were actual memories instead of fantasies, and he tried to dissuade Ferenczi from making his views public.<ref name=thepsychologist/> Karin Ahbel-Rappe concludes that "Freud marked out and started down a trail of investigation into the nature of the experience of infantile incest and its impact on the human psyche, and then abandoned this direction for the most part."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahbel-Rappe |first=K |year=2006 |title='I no longer believe': did Freud abandon the seduction theory? |journal=Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=171–99 |doi=10.1177/00030651060540010101 |pmid=16602351 |s2cid=25379440}}</ref>