The Assault on Truth - by Jeffrey Masson (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1896, Sigmund Freud presented his revolutionary "seduction theory," arguing that childhood sexual abuse directly caused adult mental illness. Just nine years later, he completely reversed this stance, insisting these traumatic memories were mere fantasies. Why did Freud retract his original theory? And why has the psychoanalytic community gone to such lengths to conceal this critical reversal?

In the landmark book, The Assault on Truth, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson draws on unique access to formerly sealed and hidden papers to uncover the truth behind this pivotal moment in psychoanalytic history. Masson dares to explore the reality that neither Freud nor his followers could bear to face.

This investigation reveals the enduring impact of Freud's decision on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Bracing in its honesty and gripping in its revelations, The Assault on Truth is the book that prompted Masson's dramatic break with the psychoanalytic establishment and launched his brilliant career as an independent thinker and writer.

Book Synopsis

The bestseller that reopened one of psychology's deepest wounds.

For generations, Sigmund Freud's legacy has shaped how we understand memory, trauma, desire, and the human mind. But what if one of the founding stories of psychoanalysis left out the voices that mattered most?

In The Assault on Truth, New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson revisits Freud's early work with patients who described childhood sexual abuse, and the moment Freud turned away from what they told him. Drawing on letters, case histories, medical records, and long-suppressed evidence, Masson asks why those accounts were recast as fantasy, and what that decision cost generations of survivors.

This is the bestselling, much-discussed book that challenged the psychoanalytic establishment and sparked a fierce public debate about trauma, memory, power, and whose truth gets believed. Urgent, provocative, and deeply researched, The Assault on Truth remains essential reading for anyone interested in Freud, psychology, and the lasting consequences of disbelief.

What happens when the people meant to listen decide not to believe?

About the Author

Jeffrey Masson has had at least four lives: first as a boy raised to become a "spiritual leader" (see his denunciation of such a life in My Father's Guru). While in the middle of his disillusion, he became a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto. At the same time, he trained to become a Freudian analyst. Upon graduation, he became Projects Director of the Freud Archives and was scheduled to move into Freud's house in London when fate intervened: Masson found documents which seemed to show that Freud was right in believing that many women had been sexually abused as children, and that he was wrong to give up this belief, perhaps impelled by societal displeasure at his discoveries. Saying this publicly turned Masson into a psychoanalytic pariah, and he gave up both his professorship and his analytic career to delve into the far more fascinating world of animal emotions.

Two of his books, When Elephants Weep and Dogs Never Lie About Love, were New York Times best-sellers. He became vegetarian as a result of his research, and later, when he looked into the feelings of farm animals, he became even stricter and no longer eats or uses any animal product (vegan). HarperCollins published his book The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving: How Dogs Have Captured Our Hearts for Thousands of Years. He subsequently published a book about becoming vegan: The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food. His book Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil is about the us/them divide.

He lived on a beach in New Zealand with his two sons, Ilan and Manu, and his German wife, Leila, a pediatrician who works with children on the autistic spectrum (using the biomedical approach), Benjy, a golden lab, and three cats for 14 years. They moved to Europe (Málaga and Berlin) and are now living in Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. They often travel to the States to see their grandchild and to Europe to see Leila's family. Jeff has just signed a contract with St. Martin's to write about the death of dogs (and other animals we consider family).