ABSTRACT
The current interest in child sexual abuse is part of a much larger social concern about women, children, and families and the role that they play in society. Social historians have used numerous creative approaches to learn more about family organization, parent-child relationships, and attitudes toward childhood sexual behavior. Although the picture is far from complete, the emerging historical perspective can sensitize us to our conscious and unconscious biases in this emotionally charged area. We will consider how children have been treated since biblical times and then will focus on a time when issues about child sexual abuse and neuropsychiatry encountered each other, the time when psychoanalytical theory was created. Then we will discuss Sigmund Freud's theories and some current criticisms of his work on sexual abuse and hysteria.
