Freud's Retraction of his Seduction Theory and the Schreber Case

Rereading Freud's paper on the Schreber case after many years surprisingly set off in my mind echoes and re-echoes of the issues surrounding his retraction of the theory presented in his earlier paper “The Aetiology of Hysteria” (1896). The so-called seduction theory held that sexual abuse in early childhood, mainly by fathers, resulted in the later development of hysteria and probably of all neuroses. It is no mere coincidence that in recent times both papers have aroused considerable controversy. Five years ago the publication of Masson's (1984) The Assault on Truth intensified the discussion of the questions surrounding Freud's retraction. Before that, starting in the sixties and culminating in the seventies, the revelations of Baumeyer, Niederland, and Schatzman concerning Schreber's father cast considerable doubt on Freud's conclusions in “Psychoanalytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides)” (1911), which was based on his study of Schreber's Memoirs of My Mental Illness.

It would be difficult to find a more dramatic illustration of the consequences of Freud's retraction and its dynamics than is contained in his discussion of the Memoirs. As that later paper demonstrates, his retraction resulted in a profound alteration in the direction of his thinking. The issue that has aroused most discussion concerns has revised evaluation of the truthfulness of his patients' revelations of their sexual abuse in early childhood, mainly by their fathers. In his original presentation he had taken great pains to marshal evidence of their authenticity. After his retraction, however, he referred to them as “fantasies,” as “falsifications made by hysterics” (1906, p. 274).

The more important issue surrounding his retraction, however,