Sigmund Freud (BP issue 11)

Chris Drouet / E O'Mara

 

"I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a little girl who doesn't eat enough or a big strong man with cocaine in his body”.

 

Born in Frieberg, Moravia in 1856, Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud, is generally recognised as one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the 20th century. With the possible exception of Darwin, the controversy that surrounds Freud and his theories is perhaps more heated than with any other recent radical thinkers of the time. Theories that were, in part, developed during his 'dalliance' with cocaine. It was primarily doctors and others with access to psychotropic substances who became 'habituated' to drugs like cocaine and a look into the scientific literature of the day, will expose a great deal of interesting information for the drug enthusiast to digest.

Cocaine was isolated in pure form in 1844 and went largely unnoticed until 1883 when Dr. Theodore Aschenbrandt, a German army physician issues it to troops during autumn manoeuvres, reporting increased stamina and morale. Among those reading Dr Aschenbrandt's report was a young, down at heel Freud who at the time was suffering from chronic fatigue, depression and other 'neurotic' symptoms. He wasted no time in buying some from the local apothecary and trying it himself. He was so pleased with the results that he sent some to his friends and even to his fiancee, Martha, to whom he wrote:

"I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a little girl who doesn’t eat enough or a big strong man with cocaine in his body.In my last serious depression I took coca again and a small dose lifted me to the heights in a wonderful fashion. I am just now collecting the literature for a song of praise to this magical substance."

The speed with which Freud published his findings was spectacular. On April 21st, 1884 he hadn't as yet bought any cocaine. By June 18th, his essay was complete and the 'Song of Praise' to coca was published in July the same year. He was hoping for some fortune to emerge from his publicising of cocaine - and some did - both Merck & Company and Parke, Davis & Company, the leading makers of cocaine-based pharmaceuticals, would pay him to write about their products, perhaps a slightly dodgy practice at the best of times.

Shortly after his marriage in 1886, Freud set up a private practice treating psychological disorders which furnished him with much of the material on which he based his theories and techniques. Working with his close friend Josef Breur, Freud had been impressed by the results of the French neurologist Jean Charcot, who at the time was using hypnosis to treat hysteria. Sigmund formulated the idea that many neurosis (phobias, some forms of paranoia and hysterical paralysis) were rooted in a past life, forgotten and hidden from consciousness. Under hypnosis the patient was encouraged to talk about their experiences and in this way confront them in both an emotional and intellectual manner, thus removing the underlying causes of their neurotic symptoms. This technique was published in 'Studies in hysteria' written jointly by Freud and Breuer.

It wasn't long however, before Breuer went his own way as he could not agree with Freud's' emphasis on the sexual origins and content of neurosis. Freud continued to work along these lines and in 1900 he published what many regard as his greatest work 'The Interpretation of Dreams'. And soon after, 'The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, followed by 'Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality'.

The German psychoanalyst Jurgen vom Scheidt, argues that cocaine played a significant role in the self analysis that Freud performed in the mid 1890's which culminated in his book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. He believed Freud was able to get in touch with his unconscious because cocaine helped amplify his sexual and aggressive drives in such as way as to bring them to his consciousness. He puts forward the view that Freud, whilst hoping to discover and study madness through the use of psychoactive drugs, it would be ordinary consciousness, not 'madness', that cocaine and psychoanalysis actually revealed. It is also interesting to note that characteristic of cocaine overuse is a sensitivity to signs and symbols - indeed paranoia consists in finding an order in sign systems where none exist, something which some might say we see reflected in Freud's work.

Freud was certainly quite aware of the effects cocaine had on him. Writing of its ability to alleviate fatigue and make 'long lasting mental or physical work possible' he exclaimed to a friend in a letter at the end of a long digression 'Oh how I run on! I really wanted to say something quite different' (something all cocaine users can empathize with). He was also aware of cocaine’s rather paradoxical effects when it came to speaking and writing; 'It is the cocaine that makes me talk so much' yet mentioning using the drug to 'untie my tongue' before important meetings.

Although he used cocaine quite often in his early days, there isn't any concrete evidence of a life long addiction. There is however, a great deal of speculation surrounding Freud's use of cocaine on his patients. He was aware of its anaesthetic qualities but hadn't written about them, that distinction goes to Karl Koller, who used it in delicate eye surgery but Freud did give it to his family and friends. Sigmund famously prescribed it to his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow to help him beat morphine addiction, where it quickly became an addiction in its own right, leaving poor Ernst suffering from hallucinations, perhaps a cocaine induced psychosis, where he screamed of having snakes crawling under his skin. It wouldn't be too long before Freud himself put down the coke, witnessing what he finally saw as its side effects.

Yet it is clear that cocaine had some influence on Freud's discoveries, perhaps even its overuse contributed to his findings. Was Freud, in his book 'Beyond the Pleasure Principle', thinking about the fatigue that comes after excessive stimulant use when he posed this relationship between pleasure, exhaustion and death?

Nevertheless, at first Freud's psychoanalytical theory was not very well received due to its emphasis on sex. It was not until 8 years later when the first International Psychoanalytical Congress was held in Salzberg, Vienna, that Freud's importance began to be recognised. After a lecture tour of the United States which formed the basis of his book 'Five Lectures on Psych-Analysis' his fame and reputation grew. Even then, Freud continued to write prolifically and produced more than 20 volumes of clinical works and theoretical studies. Although he's written a great deal, he wasn't above making even fundamental alterations to his work when he considered scientific advances warranted it. Although, Jospeh Adler and Carl Jung had been followers of Freud, they would go on to found other schools of psychoanalysis with Sigmund occasionally coming to understand that disagreements such as this were the root of new theories.

Freud was arguably the first thinker to hold that the broad spectrum of human behaviour is only explicable in terms of the (usually hidden) mental processes which determine it. The significance he attributed to dreams and slips of the tongue (now known as 'the Freudian Slip') are determined by hidden causes in the person's mind and only revealed in covert form, things that would not otherwise be known at all. This suggests of course, that free will, if not a total illusion, is certainly more tightly circumscribed than is commonly thought, following that we are governed by mental processes of which we are unaware and have no control. To the layman, Freud's psychoanalytical theory seems to offer a long sought after and much needed explanation for the neurosis caused by unconscious conflicts buried deep in the mind. That these are 'normal' is the cause of debates that still continue today, as is the nature of consciousness.

He advanced a completely new work in 1923 entitled The Ego and the Id. His theory of infantile sexuality needs to be seen as part of a broader developmental theory of human personality. That childhood events have effects on the adult individual is intrinsic to this theory, together with drives that occur almost from the moment of birth. The 'oral, anal and phallic' stages, oedipus complex, castration anxiety and latency period are all, Freud believed, to be the natural progression of normal human development. The development process essentially being a journey through a series of conflicts and many mental illnesses can be traced back to unresolved conflicts experienced at these stages.

After a remarkable life, Freud died of cancer while exiled in England in 1939, after fleeing persecution from the Nazi's. That he was a highly original thinker is beyond question and many of his observations stemmed from his own self analysis. The advances in neuropsychology and newer therapies of today, many of which have been influenced by some of Freud’s insights into the importance of the therapeutic relationship, will ensure Freud’s contribution remains an important one.

Perhaps his real addiction though, was not to cocaine but to tobacco. Despite a series of cancers and 33 operations on his mouth and jaw, Freud could not give up his cigars, of which he smoked as many as 20 daily, until his death. His efforts over a forty-five year period to stop smoking, his suffering and depression when he tried to stop and the persistence of his cravings- perhaps make him a much clearer candidate for tobacco addiction, than his 'dalliance' with cocaine.

Freud museum; 20 Maresfield Gardens London NW3 5SX