Perhaps unconscious pressures guided Freud in the further development of his thought beyond the seduction theory; however, significant conscious reasons led him to the insufficiency of that theory as a complete explanation for hysteria. Freud's evidence had not come from spontaneous expressions by patients of their childhood sexual abuse but from his pressing his theory on them. Furthermore, he then found himself no better able to explain his patients' behavior than his colleagues with other theories. Most particularly, all these patients left his care, and he was confronted with a collapse of his practice. He nonetheless continued both clinically and theoretically to take account of patients' spontaneous reports of childhood sexual abuse. Freud's negative reaction to Ferenczi on this subject was strongly influenced by Freud's knowledge of Ferenczi's personal state.