Histria Books is pleased to announce the hardcover release of The Assault on Truth by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. This book is published by Histria Academic, an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to outstanding scholarly works in the humanities by Histria Books.
The international bestseller from bestselling author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. A challenge to Freud. An indictment of the cost of disbelief.
What if the people who needed to be heard were the ones nobody wanted to believe?
When Freud’s patients described childhood sexual abuse, he initially took their accounts seriously. Then he abandoned his early theory. Why? And what did that reversal mean for generations of people whose suffering was dismissed as fantasy?
In The Assault on Truth, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson confronts the question that put him at odds with the psychoanalytic establishment. With privileged access to the Freud Archives and correspondence omitted from earlier published editions, he makes an explosive case: that protecting a profession’s reputation came at the expense of listening to its patients.
Now available in hardback, this international bestseller takes readers behind the authority of the consulting room to expose a devastating struggle over abuse, power and who gets believed.
Praise for The Assault on Truth
“A Watergate of the psyche.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Newly revealed letters and long-secret documents offer further indications of Sigmund Freud’s anguish over his first major theory, new evidence of efforts to cover up that anguish, and provide new information about the life of the man himself.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Jeffrey Masson has raised important historical questions.” — THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
“Masson’s scholarship is impeccable.” — LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Intriguing and thought-provoking . . . a fascinating detective-like story.” — SUNDAY TIMES
“A lavishly documented, carefully reasoned work, written in a straightforward, reasonable style.” — THE NATION
“A solid expose that reads like a psychological detective thriller. This brilliant, meticulously researched book probes what many see as the failure of psychoanalysis to confront the real world.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jeffrey Masson is the author of the New York Times bestsellers When Elephants Weep and Dogs Never Lie About Love. A former professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto, trained Freudian analyst and Projects Director of the Freud Archives, he sparked controversy by challenging Freud’s abandonment of his early theory linking childhood sexual abuse to psychological trauma—a subject explored in The Assault on Truth. Masson later turned his attention to animal emotions, writing widely about the relationships between humans and other animals and becoming a committed vegan. His books include The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving, The Face on Your Plate and Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, Leila.
