ABSTRACT
Freud publicly claimed in 1896 that he had found the ‘specific’ aetiology of hysteria, but Freud’s private letters to Fliess show that he didn’t have the necessary evidence that he claimed he had in order to substantiate his theory. He, therefore, embarked on a damage-limitation exercise by writing papers on memory, preparing the ground for the retraction of his seduction theory. This chapter examines some of Freud’s papers on false memories, distorted memories, substitute memories, screen memories.
The key to Freud’s seduction theory was memory: unconscious memories of sexual abuse in childhood. While Freud continued to publicly maintain his belief in his seduction theory, he searched for other explanations of hysteria. Freud’s two letters to Fliess on witches, which he wrote in January 1897, are at the heart of his transitional period. These letters show his fascination with witches, and they tell us he ordered the medieval book on witches, the Malleus. In his letters to Fliess, Freud is drawing similarities between his patients and the stories of the witches. The inquisitors wrote that the witches were sometimes phantasising sexual abuse by the devil. Freud started to adopt a more sceptical attitude towards memory. His study of the witch trials led him into looking at the possibility that his patients were phantasising sexual abuse.
