Medicine: Freud's Cocaine Capers

• Share

Woe to you, my Princess ... I will kiss you quite red and feed you until you are plump. And if you are froward, you shall see who is stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn 't eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body. In my last severe depression I took coca again and a small dose lifted me to the heights.

This lurid encomium to cocaine was not penned by an immature drug addict. It was written 90 years ago by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, to his fiancee Martha Bernays. It is no secret that Freud frequently got his kicks from cocaine. But as is clear from his newly compiled Cocaine Papers, his interest in the drug was scientific, not sensual. Freud was searching for a miracle drug that would benefit his patients and make his reputation. He thought he had found it in cocaine.

Freud's study of cocaine has long been shrouded in myths, half-truths and speculation. Cocaine Papers (Stonehill; $12.95), due in bookstores next March, should set the facts straight. Annotated by his daughter Anna, it presents for the first time in the U.S. the complete and authoritative versions of Freud's own writings on the drug, including several pieces never before published, along with the work of other early experimenters. Freud is revealed as not only a hard-driven and, ultimately, tragic seeker for a panacea, but also as one of the pioneers of psychopharmacology, the modern science of using drugs to treat mental illness.

Wonder Drug. In 1884, before he began the studies that led to the development of psychoanalysis, Freud was 28, a fledgling physician with a fiancee but without the funds to marry. He had been searching for some time for a way to establish himself and gain the respect of his colleagues. A paper by a German physician named Theodor Aschen-brandt seemed to provide the way. Conquistadores had noted the stimulant effect of coca leaves on Andean Indians. Aschenbrandt tried the drug on Bavarian soldiers and cautiously reported that while suppressing their hunger, it also increased their mental powers and capacity to endure strain.

Aschenbrandt's paper triggered Freud's own studies of cocaine. He obtained some samples of the drug and first tried it himself. It gave him an emotional lift, producing what he described as a "normal euphoria." After that he used cocaine frequently, always with the same results. Freud coolly summarized his experiences in his notes: "You perceive an increase of self-control, possess more vitality and capacity for work. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant aftermaths which accompany exhilaration through alcoholic means."

In the years that followed, Freud continued to study and analyze cocaine's effects, both on himself and on some patients. He found the drug not only useful in overcoming depression but impressively effective against some purely physiological complaints. He used it to treat stomach disorders and persistent coughing. He was careful not to administer it indiscriminately; although he initially believed that cocaine was not habit-forming, he found its effects on patients too unpredictable to justify widespread use.