By 1896 Freud had analyzed eighteen cases of neurosis and was convinced that he had made a near "Newtonian" discovery of a universal generalization that would explain a wide range of psychiatric disorders. This discovery would be called the "Seduction Theory", and is not to be confused with the theory of childhood sexuality which would latter characterize orthodox psychoanalysis. According to the Seduction Theory, hysteria is the result, in every case, of the incestuous seduction or brutal rape of children. Freud would later abandon the Seduction Theory, but it was destined to play a central and formative role in both traditional psychoanalysis and later controversies.
A key moment in Freud's professional career was his reading of his paper arguing for his Seduction Theory to the Viennese Society for Psychiatry and Neurology in April of 1896. The paper is notable as an example of Freud's charming eloquence and pride in his infant science. For Freud, it was a personal disaster. The Seduction Theory was dismissed as a "scientific fairy tale" by the most respected psychiatrist at the conference, and Freud wrote his best friend a few days later, was generally given an "icy reception" by the scientific community. Most importantly for the future of psychoanalysis was Freud's response to this reception. Undaunted, he wrote in the same letter to his friend "they can all...go to hell".
Read Freud's paper, titled "The Aetiology of Hysteria" (FR: pp. 96-111),
and come to class prepared to discuss the following questions.
1. Summarize the metaphor Freud uses to communicate what his method is like. Explain the significance of this metaphor, and of his exclamation "Saxa loquuntur!"
2. How are hysterical symptoms removed, according to Freud? What two conditions are necessary for this technique to work?
3. How does Freud make his case for his discovery of an "aetiological (causative) precondition for hysterical symptoms"?
4. Explain why Freud's Seduction Theory, even though based on the presumption of sexual experiences in childhood, is not a theory of childhood sexuality.
5. What argument does Freud make for the authenticity of his patients reports of childhood sexual abuse?
6. Freud anticipates two contradictory criticisms of his "caput Nili", that childhood sexual abuse is both too rare and too frequent to explain hysteria. Explain these criticisms, and Freud's response. How does Freud's rebuttal lead to an introduction of the importance of the unconscious?
7. Freud told his friend Fliess that the "donkeys" in Viennese academic circles could "go to hell" because of the icy reception his lecture was greeted with. What particularly burned Freud was not just the disagreement with his conclusions, but their dismissal as a "scientific fairy tale". From the last paragraph of Freud's lecture, explain why this in particular would gall Freud.