What was the controversy about Freud’s view of childhood seduction experiences?
Freud stated that the results obtained from the free association studies about his patients, throw light on their traumatic childhood. He said that people who experienced neurotic illness or some sort of mental problems, had faced childhood seduction.
He further added that the seducer was mostly some older relative in the family, and sometimes was the father himself. Many scholars were against this theory, as they were not ready to believe that child abuse was so common.
According to him, any neurotic illness is caused by some sort of traumatic sexual encounter. He also said that people, who had a normal sex life, would not face any kind of neurotic illness.
Freud retracted from his own theory after one year of publishing it. He said that his patients had made up these sexual encounters to deal with their problems. This came as a shock to Freud, who had based all his findings and dedicated his research on the foundation of sex.
However, he became relaxed when he found out that people who were cooking up fantasies and told stories, were related to sex. So his basic foundation of sex being the reason for neurotic illness was still in the game.
A man named Masson, later raised an allegation on Freud’s fantasy excuse. He said that Freud had lied about the fantasies and that in reality his patient’s had experienced childhood abuse. According to Masson, Freud lied so that he could make his studies more acceptable.