Did Freud Mislead Patients to Confabulate Memories of Abuse?

Abstract

Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory within a year of first proposing it has been the subject of considerable recent debate and speculation. Closer examination of Freud's writings, however, shows that he had often used highly suggestive procedures to elicit the memories of childhood "seductions" from his patients. Moreover, he had not considered alternative explanations for the evidence he presented when first claiming that these recovered memories of sexual abuse were real. Nevertheless, some present-day authors have argued for the validity of recovered memories by presenting much the same type of evidence that Freud once did. Research is needed to assess the extent to which recovered memories can be clearly corroborated and to establish rules for distinguishing between real and false memories of abuse.