"One of the most debated questions in Freud scholarship concerns why, after touting traumatic childhood sexual abuse as the cause of hysteria, Freud turned away from seduction theory and instead created the Oedipus complex and the theory of childhood sexuality." "Answers vary, For Freudians, the attempt to locate the reality principle within repressed memories was impossible, because, as Freud noted as early as 1897, there is no reality principle in the unconscious." "In this study, Mary Marcel applies the most recent clinical work on trauma and recovered memory to Freud's own memories. Her use of rhetorical analysis reveals that Freud's own reasons for abandoning the seduction theory were unfounded and misanalyzed." "Marcel's book is a comprehensive analysis of both the original Oedipus myths and the Greek myths of father-daughter incest. Closely analysing Freud's biography, his early career, his letters to his confidante Wilhelm Fliess, and the Oedipus myth in its full complexity, Marcel applies a multiplicity of methods and casts a completely new light on what is in fact Freud's thorough misrepresentation of both Oedipus and the incest taboo. By analyzing Freud's arguments, recovered memories from self-analysis and misuse of classical sources, Marcel uncovers why Freud turned away from seduction theory, misconstrued Oedipus, and was unable to cure his own neurosis."--Jacket.