Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born March 28, 1941 as Jeffrey Lloyd Masson) is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

and

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

. In his ''

The Assault on Truth ''The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory'' is a book by the former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in which the author argues that Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, deliberately suppressed his early ...

'' (1984), Masson argues that Freud may have abandoned his

seduction theory Freud's seduction theory (german: Verführungstheorie) was a hypothesis posited in the mid-1890s by Sigmund Freud that he believed provided the solution to the problem of the origins of hysteria and obsessional neurosis. According to the theory, ...

because he feared that granting the truth of his female patients' claims (that they had been

sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...

) would hinder the acceptance of his

psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...

methods. Masson is a

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet (nutrition), diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is kn ...

advocate and has written about

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

Early life

Jeffrey Masson is the son of Jacques Masson, a Frenchman of Bukharian Jewish ancestry, and Diana (Dina) Zeiger from an Ashkenazi strict

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

ish family. Both of his parents were followers of the

guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential ...

Paul Brunton. Masson's mother later became a follower of mystic and philosopher John Levy. During the 1940s and 1950s, Brunton often lived with them, eventually designating Masson as his

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

. In 1956, Diana and Jacques Masson moved to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

because Brunton believed that a

third world war World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...

was imminent. Jeffrey and his sister Linda followed in 1959.

Studies

At Brunton's urging, Masson went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

to study

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. While at Harvard, Masson became disillusioned with Brunton. Brunton and his influence on the Masson family form the subject of Masson's autobiographical book ''My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion''.

granted Masson a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1964 and a PhD with Honors in 1970. His degrees were in

and Indian Studies. While undertaking his PhD, Masson also studied, supported by fellowships, at the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

in Paris, the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, ...

, and the University of Poona.

Career

Masson taught Sanskrit and Indian Studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

, 1969–80, reaching the rank of Professor. He has also held short term appointments at Brown University, the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. From 1981 to 1992, he was a Research Associate, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He is currently an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Views on Freud's seduction theory

In 1970, Masson began studying to become a psychoanalyst at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute, completing a full clinical training course in 1978. His training analyst was Irvine Schiffer, a well-known Toronto analyst and author of books on the unconscious aspects of charisma and time. In 1990 Masson published an autobiographical book in which he accused Schiffer of cursing, being constantly late for sessions, and intimidating Masson when the latter complained about this issue. Schiffer denied it and debated Masson on the Canadian television program '' The Fifth Estate''. During this time, Masson befriended the psychoanalyst Kurt Eissler and became acquainted with

's daughter

Anna Freud Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contribut ...

. Eissler designated Masson to succeed him as Director of the

Sigmund Freud Archives The Sigmund Freud Archives mainly consist of a trove of documents housed at the US Library of Congress and in the former residence of Sigmund Freud during the last year of his life, at 20 Maresfield Gardens in northwest London. They were at the c ...

after his and Anna Freud's deaths. Masson learned German and studied the history of psychoanalysis. In 1980 Masson was appointed Projects Director of the Freud Archives, with full access to Freud's correspondence and other unpublished papers. While perusing this material, Masson concluded that Freud might have rejected the seduction theory in order to advance the cause of

and to maintain his own place within the psychoanalytic inner circle, after a hostile response from the renowned sex-pathologist

Richard von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work '' Psychopath ...

and the rest of the Vienna Psychiatric Society in 1896 — "an icy reception from the jackasses," was the way Freud described it later to Fliess. In 1981, Masson's controversial conclusions were discussed in a series of ''New York Times'' articles by Ralph Blumenthal, to the dismay of the psychoanalytic establishment. Masson was subsequently dismissed from his position as project director of the Freud Archives and stripped of his membership in psychoanalytic professional societies. Masson was defended by Alice Miller and

Muriel Gardiner Muriel Gardiner Buttinger (née Morris; November 23, 1901 – February 6, 1985) was an American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Early life and career Gardiner was born on November 23, 1901 in Chicago, the daughter of Edward Morris, president of ...

("While striving not to take sides," Gardiner said, "I consider him a good and energetic worker and a worthwhile scholar"). Masson later wrote several books critical of psychoanalysis, including '' The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory''. In the introduction to ''The Assault on Truth'', Masson challenged his critics to address his arguments: "My pessimistic conclusions may possibly be wrong. The documents may in fact allow a very different reading."

Janet Malcolm Janet Clara Malcolm (born Jana Klara Wienerová; July 8, 1934 – June 16, 2021) was an American writer, journalist on staff at ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and collagist. She was the author of '' Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (19 ...

interviewed Masson at length when writing her long ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'' article on this controversy, which she later expanded into '' In the Freud Archives'', a book that also dealt with Eissler and

Peter Swales Peter Swales (25 December 1932 – 2 May 1996) was a businessman who served as the chairman of Manchester City F.C. from 1973 until 1993. He held a variety of prominent positions within the game of football, including Chairman of The Footbal ...

. Masson sued ''The New Yorker'' for defamation, claiming that Malcolm had misquoted him. The ensuing trial drew considerable attention. The decade-long, US$10 million lawsuit came to a close in 1994 when the court ruled in ''The New Yorker''‘s favor. "The Court of Appeals affirmed ... that Malcolm had deliberately altered each quotation not found on the tape recordings, but nevertheless held that petitioner failed to raise a jury question of actual malice." Subsequent to the case, Janet Malcolm claimed to have found her handwritten notes indicating that Masson had lied in relation to the remaining disputed quotations, as he had lied in relation to quotations where there were recordings. In 1985, Masson edited and translated Freud's complete correspondence with

Wilhelm Fliess Wilhelm Fliess (german: Wilhelm Fließ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have n ...

after having convinced Anna Freud to make it available in full. He also looked up the original places and documents in La Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where Freud had studied with Charcot. Masson writes that the scientific community has been largely silent about his views, and that he suffered personal attacks once he deviated from the traditional views on the seduction theory and the history of psychoanalysis. Both the traditional view and Masson's case against it are built on the account that Freud's seduction theory patients reported having been sexually abused in early childhood; several Freud scholars have disputed this account.

Later work

Since the early 1990s, Masson has written a number of books on the emotional life of animals, one of which, ''When Elephants Weep'', has been translated into 20 languages. He has explained this radical change in the subject of his writings as follows: In 2008, Masson became a Director of

Voiceless, the animal protection institute Voiceless is an independent, non-profit animal protection charity based in Sydney, Australia. According to its mission statement, Voiceless's vision is for a world in which animals are treated with respect and compassion. Voiceless was founde ...

. "We are not encouraged, on a daily basis, to pay careful attention to the animals we eat. On the contrary, the meat, dairy, and egg industries all actively encourage us to give thought to our own immediate interest (taste, for example, or cheap food) but not to the real suffering involved ... The animals involved suffer agony because of our ignorance. The least we owe them is to lessen that ignorance". Masson also wrote a book about living in New Zealand, including an interview with Sir

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reache ...

Personal life

Masson is married to Leila Masson, a German pediatrician. They have two sons. He also has a daughter by a previous marriage with Therese Claire Masson. In the early 1990s, Masson had been engaged to

feminist legal scholar

Catharine MacKinnon Catharine Alice MacKinnon (born October 7, 1946) is an American radical feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, ...

, who wrote the preface to his ''A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality, and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century''. Masson became a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

in 2004. He is an

activist.

Name

Masson's great-grandfather Shlomo Moussaieff was a kabbalist and founder of the Bukharian Quarter in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. His grandfather Henry Mousaieff changed his family name from Moussaieff to Masson. Masson changed his middle name from Lloyd to Moussaieff.Wagner, Frank D. (2004)
''United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court''
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 504. .

Works

* 1974. "India and the Unconscious: Erik Erikson on Gandhi," '' International Journal of Psycho-Analysis'' 55: 519-26. Discussion by T. C. Sinha: 527. * 1974. "Sex and Yoga: Psychoanalysis and the Indian Religious Experience", '' Journal of Indian Philosophy'' 2: 307–320. Reprinted in ''Vishnu on Freud's Desk: A Reader in Psychoanalysis and Hinduism'', T.G. Vaidyanathan and

Jeffrey J. Kripal Jeffrey John Kripal (born 1962) is an American college professor. He is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His work includes the study of comparative erotics and ethics in mystic ...

eds.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, , Paperback (Edition: 2003) * 1976. "Perversions — some observations", ''Israel Ann. Psychiat. rel. Disc.'', (1976b), 14, 354-61. * 1976. (with Terri C. Masson) "The Navel of Neurosis: Trauma, Memory and Denial", paper presented to the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society * 1978. (with Terri C. Masson) "Buried Memories on the Acropolis. Freud's Relation to

Mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

and Anti-Semitism", ''International Journal of Psycho-Analysis'' 59: 199-208. * 1980. ''The Oceanic Feeling: The Origins of Religious Sentiment in Ancient India''. * 1981. ''The Peacock's Egg: Love Poems from Ancient India'',

W. S. Merwin William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...

and J. Moussaieff Masson, eds. * 1984. ''The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory''. Farrar Straus & Giroux. * 1984.
Freud and the Seduction Theory A challenge to the foundations of psychoanalysis
" ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', February 1984. * 1985. (editor and translator) ''The Complete Letters of

, 1887-1904''. * 1986. ''A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century''. * 1988. '' Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing''. * 1990. ''Final Analysis: The Making and Unmaking of A Psychoanalyst''. Addison-Wesley. * 1993. ''My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion'', Addison-Wesley. * 1994. (with Susan McCarthy) ''When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Life of Animals'', Jonathan Cape. * 1995.
A Note on U.G. Krishnamurti
* 1996. ''Lost Prince: The Unsolved Mystery of

Kaspar Hauser Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound to his left breast, sparked much debate an ...

''. * 1997. ''Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs''. * 1999. ''The Emperor's Embrace: Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood''. * 2003. ''The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals''. * 2002. ''The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats: A Journey Into the Feline Heart''. * 2004. ''The Evolution of Fatherhood: A Celebration of Animal and Human Families''. * 2004. ''Slipping into Paradise: Why I live in New Zealand''. * 2004. ''The Cat Who Came in from the Cold''. Wheeler. * 2005. ''Raising the Peaceable Kingdom: What Animals Can Teach Us about the Social Origins of Tolerance and Friendship''. * 2006. ''Altruistic Armadillos - Zen-Like

Zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...

s: A Menagerie of 100 Favorite Animals''. * 2009. ''The Face on Your Plate: The Truth about Food''. * 2010. "On Alice Miller"Responding to Daphne Merkin's articl
"Private Drama"
at '' Tablet Magazine''. * 2010. ''The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving: How Dogs Have Captured Our Hearts for Thousands of Years''. * 2010. (editor) Sigmund Freud: '' The Interpretation of Dreams: The Illustrated Edition''. * 2010 ''Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras-Understanding the World's Most Intriguing Animals''. Skyhorse Publishing. * 2011 "Pornography and animals", in * 2014 ''Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil''. Bloomsbury Publishing. *2020 ''Lost Companions: Reflections on the Death of Pets''. Murdoch Books.

Reviews of his books

* ''The Complete Letters of

, 1887-1904''
By William McGrath.
* ''Against Therapy'': *

*
By Wray Herbert.
* ''Final Analysis''
By Michael Sacks.
* ''Breaking Away From the Cult''

References

External links

Jeffrey Masson's website
;Articles *

The first of two articles in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' by Ralph Blumenthal, published August 18, 1981. * " ttp://www.robertboynton.com/articleDisplay.php?article_id=20 Till Press Do Us Part: The Trial of Janet Malcolm and Jeffrey Masson. Interviews
Transcript
of an interview: Jeffrey Masson talking with Kirsten Garrett about Sigmund Freud and

Emma Eckstein Emma Eckstein (1865–1924) was an Austrian author. She was "one of Sigmund Freud's most important patients and, for a short period of time around 1897, became a psychoanalyst herself". She has been described as "the first woman analyst", who b ...

/ first broadcast on ''The Science Show'' in 1986, second broadcast 3 June 2006 presented by Robyn Williams
A conversation about the lives of animals
with Susan McCarthy and Jeffrey Moussaieff Mason on Jun 30, 1995, Duration 60 min (Audio) *

" November 14, 2002 *

between Masson and Richard Fidler. Related Audio, December 14, 2007. *
Episode 6: Human and the Beast
, Masson interviewed by Siobhan O'Sullivan for the ''Knowing Animals'' podcast {{DEFAULTSORT:Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff 1941 births Living people American animal rights scholars American people of French-Jewish descent American male non-fiction writers American veganism activists Animal cognition writers Anti-psychiatry Writers from Chicago Harvard University alumni University of Michigan faculty American memoirists American autobiographers American psychoanalysts Jewish psychoanalysts American Sanskrit scholars University of Toronto faculty Brown University faculty Translators of Sigmund Freud Jewish activists