ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relevance and place of the seduction hypothesis and its abandonment to psychoanalysis and clinical practice today. It revisits the seduction hypothesis and its abandonment from this angle. In 1896, in a series of papers, Freud presented a theory about hysteria which became known as the “seduction hypothesis”. Play is what a child does in a session. For the adult, in reference to clinical practice, play is the play of the signifier, the speaking by free association as the method by which psychoanalysis proceeds. But whether it is the play of the child or the play of speech of the adult, the effect of this play, to take up Agamben's proposition, is to transform structure into events. Freud in his self-analysis, at least initially takes up the position that his parents are implicated in, and effectively responsible for, his suffering.
