Freud and Mackenzie Phillips on Trauma and Childhood Sexual Abuse
Recent research is showing that major psychiatric “disorders” may not be disorders at all but reactions to childhood trauma. Freud discovered the same thing and announced his findings in 1896. However, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in his book, “The Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of the Seduction Theory
In the late 1800′s numerous doctors were looking into a phenomenon they called “hysteria” (what we now refer to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) while at the same time others were discovering just how prolific childhood abuse was. Jean-Martin Charcot, a famous French neurologist and one of Freud’s mentors, argued that trauma was the origin of all mental illness. During the same time Charles-Joseph Bouchard, an equally famous French pathologist and another mentor of Freud’s, was doing autopsies on children and documenting the horrific abuses which they endured.
Both of these men influenced Freud and in 1896, Sigmund Freud presented a paper to the psychiatric community reporting his discovery that the “hysteria” he witnessed in female patients was the result of childhood sexual abuse. Masson demonstrates that Freud’s announcement shocked the psychiatric community who refused to acknowledge his findings and eventually exerted enough pressure on Freud to force him to recant. Freud was not the only one to make this claim, but he was the most well known, and his reversal of his position had far-reaching effects on the psychiatric world. When Ferenczi tried to raise the same idea in 1933, he too was denounced. This refusal of the psychiatric community to recognize childhood sexual abuse and the resulting trauma may have set psychiatry back more than 100 years.
I have to wonder if this denial does not still permeate our culture today as I read about people’s reactions to Mackenzie Phillips’ allegations of incest by her famous father. Phillips has announced that she was molested by her famous father, John Phillips. Her mother, Michelle Phillips called her a liar with mental health and drug problems. One of her sisters believes her, the other denies it. And people debate back and forth about whether her claim is true or not. Unfortunately, this reaction of denial is very, very common in families with incest. But we would hope that mental health professionals would embrace what family members seek to silence. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in the past.
In the past few years numerous research studies have shown that major psychiatric illnesses such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder may be the result of childhood trauma instead of a biological disorder of the brain. We will have to see what the reaction of the psychiatric community to this new research. I can only hope that they hear the message that Freud tried to deliver more than 100 years ago – this time.
For a more thorough discussion of this research, please see “The psychiatric establishment is about to experience an earthquake that will shake its intellectual foundations.”
References:
Ferenczi, S. (1933). The Confusion of Tongues Between Adults and Children: The Language of Tenderness and of Passion. Sándor Ferenczi Number. M. Balint (Ed.) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 30: Whole No.4, 1949 [The First English Translation of the paper.]Freud, S. (1896). “The aetiology of hysteria”. Freud Reader. Ed. Peter Gay. New York: Norton, 1989. 96-111.
Larkin, W., & Read, J. (2008). Childhood trauma and psychosis: Evidence, pathways, and implications. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 54(4), 287-293.
Masson, J. M. (2003). The Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of the Seduction Theory
Park, M. (2009) Phillips’ incest claim draws attention to taboo, Cnn.com, Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/30/incest.phillips.family/index.html
Snead, E. (2009) Family reacts to Mackenzie Phillips’ incest claims: Chynna believes, Michelle and Bijou don’t, Los Angeles Times, Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/09/family-reacts-to-mackenzie-phillips-incest-chynna-believes-michelle-and-bijoux-dont.html
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