ABSTRACT
The psychoanalytic understanding of causality constitutes a kind of omega point around which the whole practice of therapy revolves, as all therapeutic action is predicated upon key assumptions about causes of distress. This chapter introduces the psychoanalytic conception of causation. An important consideration that the reflections raise is whether Sigmund Freud’s general outlook coloured how he understood the causation of suffering. Freud originally traced the aetiology of hysteria to actual traumatic events in childhood, usually to the child’s seduction by an adult. Freud’s use of his seduction theory lasted until around 1900, at which point he slowly embarked upon a radical reformulation of his aetiological vision. Masson explains Freud’s abandonment of the seduction theory as owing to his reluctance to further outrage the psychiatric community with his findings. While both object-relations and Freudian orientations debated how far the causes of suffering were real or imagined, both still unequivocally agreed that early childhood was the key phase of human biography.
