The Assault on Truth
Masson uses sealed Freud archives to expose why Freud retracted clinical evidence linking childhood abuse to mental illness, a suppression with century-long consequences for psychiatry.
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Print Length:
380 pages
Publication Date:
September 30, 2025
Publisher:
Histria Academic
About The Assault on Truth
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In the history of modern psychiatry, few moments are more consequential, or more contested, than Freud's decision to abandon his seduction theory. In The Assault on Truth, Jeffrey Masson, former projects director at the Sigmund Freud Archives, reveals what the sealed historical record actually shows: that Freud had clinical evidence linking childhood sexual abuse to adult psychological suffering, then retracted it under social and professional pressure. Masson's argument is explosive: that by retreating from this finding, Freud not only distorted the development of psychoanalysis but contributed to a century-long institutional suppression of abuse survivors' testimony. Drawing on previously inaccessible letters and documents, this book exposes the gap between what Freud privately knew and what his followers were permitted to say. Masson's findings prompted his dismissal from the Freud Archives, which only adds weight to his argument that institutional truth-suppression remains a live problem in modern scientific establishments.
