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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.psycgrad
Date:         Sat, 26 Sep 1992 10:32:00 EDT
              <PSYCGRAD@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
From:         MCARTER@BENTLEY.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Freud

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my question about Freud.  You
have given me some good leads which I will follow-up.  I had posted the
excerpt from _The Courage to Heal_, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, Harper
& Rowe, NY, 1988, that originally started me on this quest.  However,
I don't think it ever got to the list.  I am sending it along again, so
if it did make it the first time, just delete at this point and move on
to the next posting!

                      FREUD AND THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
(p. 347)

        Neither children nor women make up stories that they were
abused because they were attracted to their fathers or other adults.  The
Oedipal theory as used in this way is false and damaging to women.

        There are several thorough examinations of the way in which Freud
constructed the Oedipal theory as a cover-up for the truth of child sexual
abuse.  Both Florence Rush, in _The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of
Children_, and Jeffrery Masson, in _The Assault onTruth: Freud's
Suppression of the Seduction Theory_, document Freud's discovery that
large numbers of his women clients had been sexually abused in childhood
and that this was the cause of much mental illness.*  They go on to
present the information, from Freud's own letters and other writings, that
he had reason to believe that incest had taken place in his own family.
Not only were these radical discoveries too threatening for Freud's
colleagues, but he shrank from the implications himself.  He disavowed
that sexual abuse was at the root of hysteria.  In its place he substituted
the Oedipal theory, thus turning the reality of abuse into a child's
fantasy.  There was no evidence to support his switch; Freud was simply
unwilling to believe that so many fathers--possibly including his own--
could abuse their children.  Freud's new theory was obviously more
palatable to society and to the patriarchal profession in which he worked.
And it comfortably allowed him to avoid confronting the painful truth of abuse
in his own family.

* Although Jeffrey Masson's work received great media response for exposing
the fallacies in the Oedipal theory, Florence Rush was the pioneer.  Her
article "Freud and the Sexual Abuse of Children" appeared in 1977 in the
first issue of _Chrysalis_, a feminist journal.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. _The Assault on Truth: Freud's Supression
     of the Seduction Theory._ New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1984

Rush, Florence. _The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children._
     Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980.





I know that excerpt is from a book many consider "pop psychology" but I
also know how well it is written in its presentation of the issues; and
how much it has benefited so many survivors.  I'm of the belief that all
good sources do not necessarily have to come from psychological journals.
Informational accuracy is my main concern (that's why I originally posted
to this list for further references).  Whatever helps me understand what
a client may be experiencing, and whatever helps a client find expression,
is what I consider "valuable."  Please understand that I'm not discounting
the immense value to research, experiment, understanding and application
of theory, etc.  All of that is necessary and incredibly important.  It's
just that I've seen a lot of people gain insight and produce change in
their lives from the so-called "self-help" books, as well.  Granted, they
can get out of hand and go too far (the books I mean) but, like anything
else, with some guidance, support and clarification, many people can go
a long way to recovery by letting the books help them formulate questions
and develop strategies toward health and wholeness.

I think I just went out on a shaky limb here!  Please keep flames to a
"simmer!"


Mikel
<mcarter@bentley.bitnet>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU