 In the traditional account of development of seduction theory, Freud initially thought that his patients were relating more or less factual stories of sexual mistreatment, and that the sexual abuse was responsible for many of his patients' neuroses and other mental health problems.Within a few years Freud abandoned his theory, concluding that the memories of sexual abuse were in fact imaginary fantasies.An alternative account that has come to the fore in recent Freudian scholarship emphasizes that the theory, as posited by Freud, was that hysteria and obsessional neurosis result from "unconscious" memories of sexual abuse in infancy.