The Assault on Truth

1 About this book

The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory is a book by the former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in which the author argues that Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, 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 Masson reached this conclusion while he had access to several of Freud's unpublished letters as projects director of the Sigmund Freud Archives. The Assault on Truth was first published in 1984 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; several revised editions have since been published.

The book prompted massive publicity and controversy. It received many negative reviews, several of which rejected Masson's reading of psychoanalytic history.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: history and mental health.

• History
• Mental health
• Fantasy
• Psychoanalysis
• Seduction
• Child sexual abuse
• Child abuse
• Cas, Études de