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The term '[[seduction theory]]' is not used by [[Freud]] but is commonly employed to describe his first [[theory ]] of the origins of [[neurosis]], which holds that all [[neuroses ]] can be traced back to represses [[memories ]] of [[sexual ]] traumas experienced in early [[childhood]].In his earliest papers, [[Freud]] variously describes these '[[infantile ]] sexual scenes' as 'rape', 'assault', '[[aggression]]', and '[[seduction]]'.Throughout his long correspondence with his associate [[Wilhelm Fliess]], [[Freud]] discusses the viability of his seduction theory and eventually comes to suspect that it implies an improbably high incidence of sexual abuse and of [[incest ]] on the part of fathers.The theory is finally abandoned in favor of the [[thesis ]] that what appear to be memories of 'seduction' are in fact [[fantasies ]] related to the [[Oedipus complex]] and that they are an expression of the [[child]]'s [[unconscious]] [[desire]] to [[seduce ]] its [[father]].[[Freud]] does not, however, deny that the sexual abuse of [[children ]] takes [[place]], and remarks in one of his last publications that it is 'common enough'.