Between seduction and libido: Sigmund Freud's masturbation hypotheses and the realignment of his etiologic thinking, 1897-1905

Loss of innocence: Albert Moll, Sigmund Freud and the invention of childhood sexuality around 1900

This paper analyses how, prior to the work of Sigmund Freud, an understanding of infant and childhood sexuality emerged during the nineteenth century. Key contributors to the debate were Albert Moll, Max Dessoir and others, as fin-de-siècle artists and writers celebrated a sexualised image of the child. By the beginning of the twentieth century, most paediatricians, sexologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and pedagogues agreed that sexuality formed part of a child's 'normal' development. This paper argues that the main disagreements in discourses about childhood sexuality related to different interpretations of children's sexual experiences. On the one hand stood an explanation that argued for a homology between children's and adults' sexual experiences, on the other hand was an understanding that suggested that adults and children had distinct and different experiences. Whereas the homological interpretation was favoured by the majority of commentators, including Moll, Freud, and to some extent also by C.G. Jung, the heterological interpretation was supported by a minority, including childhood psychologist Charlotte Bühler.

Practical approach to childhood masturbation--a review

The aim of this article is to review the literature for information that could guide the clinical practitioner in the assessment and management of childhood masturbation. The boundary between normal and abnormal or deviant masturbation in children remains unclear. Besides the link with sexual abuse, other environmental factors and individual factors, as well as psychiatric disorders, are mentioned in relation to masturbation and sexual behaviour in general in children. However, evidence-based information is missing and, therefore, a safety management approach is advised when a clinician is confronted with childhood masturbation. We conclude that normal psychosexual development, as well as environmental and individual factors, should be considered in the assessment and management of childhood masturbation.

Misconceptions about Freud's seduction theory: comment on Gleaves and Hernandez (1999)

D. H. Gleaves and E. Hernandez (1999) write in relation to the seduction theory that "recent writers now argue that ... Freud never made discoveries of sexual abuse" (p. 332) and that "the assertion that Freud did not make discoveries of abuse is unwarranted" (p. 324). In this article an outline of the case that Freud had no adequate grounds for his 1896 claims of having uncovered infantile "sexual scenes" is given. Some of the more important misconceptions and erroneous arguments in Gleaves and Hernandez's article are then examined.

The mythologizing of psychoanalytic history: deception and self-deception in Freud's accounts of the seduction theory episode

Following in the footsteps of the pioneering articles by Frank Cioffi in the early 1970s, several scholars in recent years have scrutinized Freud's writings pertaining to the seduction theory and to his clinical procedures in the mid- 1890s and concluded that he had no adequate grounds for his contention that he had uncovered 'sexual scenes' from infancy. They have also shown that even a cursory examination of Freud's original papers reveals that they are not consistent with his later accounts of the episode. This article goes beyond indicating the manifest discrepancies between the later reports and the original papers, and analyses the retrospective accounts in considerable detail, with the aim of illuminating the means by which Freud succeeded in obscuring what actually happened with his patients in the period in question, and the reasons for his doing so.