A Mote in Freud's Eye: From Psychoanalysis to the Psychology of Women

Self-reported amnesia for abuse in adults molested as children

“…21 0894-9867/93/0100-0021$07.W0 0 1993 Plenum Publishing Corporation 22Briere and Conte period of speculation in this area. As noted by several recent authors (e.g., Lerman, 1986;Masson, 1984;Rush, 1980), Freud posited as early as 1896 that children who had been "seduced" by adults were prone to the development of hysteria in adulthood, especially if the molestation transpired early in life and was subsequently repressed from consciousness (Freud, 1954).Later, of course, Freud reversed his position vis il vis the role of sexual abuse, stating in 1933 that "I was driven to recognize in the end that these reports were untrue and so came to understand that the hysterical symptoms are derived from phantasies and not from real occurrences" (Freud, 1966, p. 584).Despite Freud's ultimate rejection of the role of childhood sexual trauma in the development of later symptomatology, recent research has, in fact, validated much of his early speculation. It is now generally accepted that childhood sexual abuse is quite common in our society (Finkelhor, 1979;Russell, 1983;Wyatt, 1985), and that incidence rates in outpatient clinical populations may parallel those first reported by Freud in his clinical practice (Briere and Runtz, 1987).…”

“…Briere and Conte period of speculation in this area. As noted by several recent authors (e.g., Lerman, 1986;Masson, 1984;Rush, 1980), Freud posited as early as 1896 that children who had been "seduced" by adults were prone to the development of hysteria in adulthood, especially if the molestation transpired early in life and was subsequently repressed from consciousness (Freud, 1954).…”

Gender Socialization

“…Miriam Johnson has noted the special role of the father in helping both boys and girls develop these understandings, as the father tends to become more involved with children as they become older and more aware of gender differences. (See Johnson, 1988;Lerman, 1986;Stockard & Johnson, 1979 for a complete discussion of these traditions. )…”

Antiracism as an Ethical Imperative: An Example From Feminist Therapy

“…In the best feminist tradition, I had my consciousness raised in a way that pushed past my own liberal denial of the problem. As a feminist therapist, if I accepted the dictates of my own ethics to believe and validate the diversity and complexity of women's experiences (Lerman, 1986), I needed to believe what I was learning about those exclusionary aspects of feminist therapy that went beyond simply not knowing about the experiences of women from nondominant groups. I began, under the influence of this chapter, to think of racism as a form of unethical behavior for me as a feminist therapist, rather than simply as a type of cultural oppression that some bad people out there did to people of color.…”