The general theory of seduction is one of the central components in the metapsychological work of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche.
The original “theory of seduction” (Verführungstheorie) was a hypothesis developed by Sigmund Freud in the mid-1890s to account for the condition of hysteria. Freud posited that behind intensely experienced but apparently banal memories recollected by hysterical patients there lay concealed from consciousness the unassimilable remembrance of real events of infantile sexual abuse. At this relatively early stage of his career Freud still held to the common “pre-Freudian” view that children were essentially asexual beings, and that the psychological and physiological …
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Citation: Ray, Nicholas. "General Theory of Seduction". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=13856, accessed 25 November 2024.]
