In the development phase of psychoanalysis, Freud, Sigmund initially thought that all neurosis were the product of sexual abuse in childhood. He soon realized that not everything his patients reported referred to actual events. Psychoanalysis effectively begins from the moment Freud abandons this theory and starts to think more closely about the role of fantasy and the imaginary in shaping the unconscious. In 1984, the director of the Freud archives, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, published The Assault on Truth, which controversially charged that Freud abandoned his seduction theory in order to cover up the fact that so many of his patients had been abused. According to Masson, Freud was worried that it would discredit his theory and harm his professional standing. Debate on this topic continues, but without any clear conclusion. Janet Malcomâs In the Freud Archives (1984) provides an account of how Masson was transformed from archivist to anti-psychoanalysis activist, but rather disappointingly does not clear Freud of this charge, or show that the charge is without foundation.