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The first paper delivered was that of Alan Bass. He presented an erudite, closely reasoned, and scholarly paper entitled “Why Freud Abandons His Seduction Theory.” His main contention is that Freud had to give up the seduction theory because he had developed both an endogenous theory of the etiology of neurosis and a radical new theory of mind in which nonperceptual processes play a major role. Bass states,
A real sexual trauma is something perceived. Trauma most certainly has its own grave consequences and most certainly may be associatively linked to nonperceived unconscious processes, but it is an affair of consciousness.
Freud had to modify the single position of a real perceived seduction as universal causation of hysteria because to do otherwise would be inconsistent with the rest of his theory.
Freud wrote to Fliess in 1897 that he cheerfully gave up the seduction theory because “There are no indications of reality in the unconscious so one could not distinguish between truth and fiction that is cathected with affect.”
Bass indicates that Freud had good reason to be cheerful about this insight as it was consistent with all the major themes that had been traced: (1) that we may have memories of events not perceived; (2) that such memories may be inadmissible to consciousness and subject to defense; (3) that such memories have a force that the defensive process has to reckon with; (4) that this link between energy and defense has to lead to an imaginative conception of neurosis if the subject is to be understood scientifically; (5) that this force can be understood psychologically as the force of wishes is in dreams; and (6) that there is a region of the mind not previously understood because it cannot be perceived, a region in which wishes, fantasies, and defenses are remembered.
Throughout his paper, Bass traces these themes sta