 While perusing this material, Masson concluded that Freud might have rejected the seduction theory in order to advance the cause of psychoanalysis and to maintain his own place within the psychoanalytic inner circle, after a hostile response from the renowned sex-pathologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing 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 ("While striving not to take sides," Gardiner said, "I consider him a good and energetic worker and a worthwhile scholar").