Boag (2006) holds that many psychologists misinterpret Freud's concept of repression as chiefly concerning motivated forgetting of trauma. He characterizes the persistence of this alleged error as an instance of “pathological science” whereby the field's self-correcting mechanisms fail to function properly. The purpose of this comment is to provide an alternative, nonpathological account situated within the context of the recovered memory debate.
BoagS. (2006). Freudian repression, the common view, and pathological science. Review of General Psychology, 10, 74–86.
2.
CrewsF. (1995). The memory wars: Freud's legacy in dispute. New York: New York Review of Books.
3.
EstersonA. (1993). Seductive mirage: An exploration of the work of Sigmund Freud. Chicago: Open Court.
4.
EstersonA. (1998). Jeffrey Masson and Freud's seduction theory: A new fable based on old myths. History of the Human Sciences, 11, 1–21.
5.
EstersonA. (2001). The mythologizing of psychoanalytic history: Deception and self-deception in Freud's accounts of the seduction theory. History of Psychiatry, 12, 329–352.
6.
EstersonA. (2002a). Freud's seduction theory: A reply to Gleaves and Hernandez. History of Psychology, 5, 85–91.
7.
EstersonA. (2002b). The myth of Freud's ostracism by the medical community in 1896–1905: Jeffrey Masson's assault on truth. History of Psychology, 5, 115–134.
8.
FreudS. (1962). The aetiology of hysteria. In StracheyJ., The standard edition of the complete works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 3, pp. 191–221). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1896)
9.
HermanJ. H. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books.
10.
HermanJ. H., & SchatzowE. (1987). Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 4, 1–14.
11.
MassonJ. M. (1984). Assault on truth: Freud's suppression of the seduction theory. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
12.
McNallyR. J. (2003). Remembering trauma. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.
