Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939, 1856-1939--Childhood and youth, 1856-1939--Family, Jacob, 1815-1896, Psychoanalysts--Austria--Biography, Fathers and sons, Psychoanalysis--History 

A crucial turning point in the development of psychoanalysis was Freud's rejection of his original "seduction theory," which held that neurosis resulted from sexual seduction at an early age. Freud's abandonment of this theory is celebrated by most of his biographers as essential to the discovery of the Oedipus complex, infantile sexuality, and the libido theory - the cornerstones of psychoanalysis. The true value of this shift in his thinking and the reasons behind it have recently become topics of intense controversy. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Freud initially believed that people's neuroses were the direct result of their having been sexually seduced by parents or other caretakers in childhood. Later he renounced this view, claiming that patients' professed memories of such traumas were fantasies. Yet many people are sexually abused or seduced as children. So why did Freud turn away from the "seduction theory" when it held such promise? University of Bonn professor Krull contends that Freud's father, Jacob, passed down to the founder of psychoanalysis an unspoken taboo against delving into his own past. Shortly after Jacob died, guilt-torn Sigmund switched from the seduction theory to the Oedipus complex. Krull's hypothesis hinges on the "massive guilt feelings" that Jacob, an Orthodox Jew, presumably experienced when he became assimilated. Or was it Jacob's secret masturbation, or his marriage to a much younger woman, that burdened him with guilt? Krull doesn't have a clear idea, and her rash psychoanalyzing of father and son is built largely on conjecture. She attacks Jeffrey Masson's The Assault on Truth, which, she claims, portrayed Freud as "a liar craving fame," but this psychobiography offers little more than occasionally plausible speculation. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This very interesting account attempts to link the seminal period in the development of psychoanalytic theory (roughly 1890-1908) with Freud's personal conflicts, particularly involving the memory of his father. Krull's thesis is that Freud's rejection of his seduction theory in favor of theories of oedipal conflict and infantile sexuality was based on his deep-rooted and probably unconscious fear of violating taboos against betraying secrets of his father's possible sexual misdeeds. Though moderate in tone, the book is yet another effort to discredit Freudian theory on the basis of inferences about Freud's motivations, regardless of the theory's actual merits and utility. In its clarity and thoroughness the book will be of interest to informed laypersons and professionals alike. But though it seems more even-handed than other recent anti-Freudian works such as Masson's, the author's limited acknowledgement of the real scope of analytic theory severely biases her conclusions. Paul Hymowitz, Psychiatric Dept., Cornell Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.