ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis has had a love–hate relationship with the seduction theory and the treatment of the incest trauma. In point of fact, the origins of psychoanalysis are based upon Freud’s discovery that neurosis (hysteria) was caused by the sexual seduction of (mostly) female patients by their fathers (and secondarily by surrogate father figures). This was a remarkable discovery that established psychoanalysis on a phenomenological basis; that is to say, the data for the analysis was generated from the subjective report of the analysand.
