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Eissler's posthumous book, begun in 1985 and virtually complete at the time of his death, is a kind of farewell gift from the great historian of psychoanalysis, containing both a leisurely
review of his favourite controversial topics and some new and unexpected afterthoughts. In his witty, self-deprecating introduction and prologue, Eissler almost apologises for writing the book, asking who will read one more book about the seduction theory and acknowledging that he has never succeeded in changing his adversaries’ opinions. ‘Friend and foe agree that my polemics are a waste of time and effort.’ But he yielded to the temptation to write, he admits, when he realised how few critics of Freud really understood the theory and why Freud abandoned it. ‘Ferenczi understood the theory and nevertheless reasserted it’, while others attempted to re-establish the theory without understanding its meaning, among them Jeffrey Masson, Alice Miller, Marianne Krüll, Holm Stierlin and Morton Schatzman.
Eissler's aim is narrow: to describe the short period between late 1895, when Freud conceived the seduction theory, and September 1897, when he wrote to Fliess, ‘I do not believe in my neurotica any longer’. His scope, however, is vast, and his erudition is wide ranging, as he gives his readers, with characteristic generosity, far more than they could expect. The book is not just a polemic against those he calls ‘the psychoanalytic FBI: Freud Bashers International’; the seduction theory occupies only a portion of its 500 pages. And it is not a work of unqualified adulation, a position Eissler has been accused of promoting. Besides his great admiration for Freud, Eissler makes many vigorous criticisms, as in acknowledging Freud's indefensible ingratitude towards Josef Breuer, who had been so generous in helping Freud and had continued to recommend Freud for a professorship long after their friendship had ended.
To summarise Eissler's concept of the seduction theory and its abandonment, in