ABSTRACT
We argue (see chapter 2) that Freud more or less abandoned the seduction theory of trauma in favor of the oedipal theory of pathogenesis. We contend that in this dramatic shift he altered the focus of psychoanalysis from the former to the latter. It is difficult to determine if this momentous shift was motivated by personal reasons related to Freud's so-called suppression of the truth (Masson, 1984) about seduction, that is, the prevalence of actual sexual molestation and abuse in childhood.
