Sexual Abuse

Sigmund Freud

But we must not fail to lay special emphasis on one conclusion to which analytic work along these chains of memory has unexpectedly led. We have learned that no hysterical symptom can arise from a real experience alone, but that in every case the memory of earlier experiences awakened in association to it plays a part in causing the symp­tom. lf - as I believe this proposition holds good without exception, it furthermore shows us the basis on which a psychological theory of hysteria must be built.