The new trauma theory and the question of “truth” around 1932: The hidden history of revolutionary dyads in psychoanalysis

This paper explores the meanings attributed to the concept of “truth” in discussions of trauma and child abuse among Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, Elizabeth Severn, and Marie Bonaparte beginning in 1932. It offers a new perspective on the long-standing silence surrounding the seduction theory in psychoanalytic literature by reassessing Freud’s unsuccessful analysis of Bonaparte – an analysis that foreshadowed his forceful reaction to Ferenczi’s “Confusion of Tongues” (1933). Drawing on key moments from Bonaparte’s treatment, the article examines newly opened correspondence between Bonaparte and Freud, housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, alongside other unpublished archival materials. By closely analyzing crucial discussions of boundary violation and mutuality within the analytic dyads of Bonaparte–Freud and Severn–Ferenczi, the paper highlights the hidden contexts in which the new trauma theory emerged and the pivotal events of 1932 that reshaped the history of psychoanalysis. It further underscores Severn’s and Bonaparte’s independent contributions to the development of trauma theory.