This edited collection brings together the perspectives of a broad spectrum of experts who reflect on Freud’s Seduction Theory, psychoanalysis, and the reality of child abuse through the work of Jeffrey Masson.

Jeffrey Masson’s The Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of the Seduction Theory (1984) is arguably the most controversial book on psychoanalysis in the last century. It provoked a furore from mainstream psychoanalysis, yet was well-received by the emerging international trauma field and became a bestseller. Four decades on, a group of international scholars and professionals revisit Masson’s original work and reflect on the lessons that can be taken from the saga. Was the reaction of Masson’s peers tied to the fact that he had accused Freud of being less than heroic, or was it that he confronted psychoanalysis with a very uncomfortable truth? This book examines how The Assault on Truth came to be written, why it sparked such an extreme reaction, and the issues Masson was grappling with.

Complete with an extended Foreword by John Briere, a luminary of the modern trauma field, this book will be essential reading for practitioners, students, and researchers involved in contemporary psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, psychology and especially trauma care, women’s mental health, child safety and the study of memory.

Warwick Middleton has been the Foundation Director of the Trauma and Dissociation Unit, Belmont Hospital, for over 20 years. He is a pioneer researcher in the area of ongoing incest during adulthood; he chairs the Cannan Institute; and is a past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. He currently holds Professorial appointments with the University of Queensland, Australia, and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Martin J. Dorahy is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and a past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. His published work has primarily explored cognitive and emotional underpinnings of dissociation and dissociative disorders. His clinical work is focused on the adult outcomes of abuse and neglect.