The Freudian Fallacy: Freud and Cocaine

361 Pages·1986·5.521 MB·English

by  E.M. Thornton

E. M. Thomton is a layFellowof the RoyalSociety of Medicine
and a member of the History of Medicine Section. Though not
medically qualified, she was allowed by special dispensation to
attendthe undergraduate teaching inneurologyatamajor London
teachinghospital,whichshe did formanyyears.Atpresentsheisa
researchassistantand depanmentallibrarianatthat hospital.

E. M. THORNTON
The Freudian Fallacy
Freud and Cocaine
PALADIN
GRAFTON BOOKS
ADivisionoftheCollinsPublishingGroup
(cid:76)(cid:79)(cid:58)(cid:45)(cid:59)(cid:79)(cid:79)(cid:126) CL.\SCOW
TORO:\TO SYDNEY.\UCKLANO
Paladin
Grafton Books
ADivisionofthe Collins Publishing Group
8Grafton Street,LondonWIX3LA
Revisededition published byPaladin Books1986
Firstpublished inGreatBritainby
Blond&BriggsLimited 1983
underthe titleFreudandCocaine
Copyright© E.M. Thomton 1983, 1986
ISBN 0-586-08533-5
Printed and bound inGreatBritain by
Collins, Glasgow
Set in Ehrhardt
Allrights reserved. No part ofthispublication may
bereproduced,stored inaretrievalsystem,or
transmitted,inanyform,orbyanymeans, electronic,
mechanical,photocopying, recordingor otherwise,
withoutthe prior permission ofthe publishers.
This bookissoldsubject tothe condition that it
shallnot,bywayoftrade orotherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out orotherwise circulated
withoutthe publisher's prior consentinany
formofbinding orcoverotherthan that in
whichitispublishedandwithout asimilar
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onthe subsequent purchaser.
Contents
Aclmo1l'ledgemmts 7
ro~~ 8
Introduaion 9
PART ONE
1 The EarlyYears 21
2 FirstEncounterwithCocaine 41
3 Charcotand theSalpetriere 53
4 The Hysterique: ofthe Salpetriere 70
5 ExperimentsinHypnosis 87
6 Traumatic Hysteriaand the NancySchoolofHypnotism 108
7 The FamousAnnaO. Case 123
PART TWO
8 The NasalReflexNeurosis 153
9 The Great Cocaine Epidemic 173
10 EarlyPatientsand Theories 194
11 Hysteriaand Psychoanalysis 208
12 Repressionand ConversionHysteria 222
13 The Ill-Fated Seduction Theory 235
14 The UnconsciousMind and the Oedipus Complex 248
15 The Interpretation ofDreams 275
16 Freud theScientist? 290
17 The Mythofthe Hero 303
Epilogue 321
Glossary 325
Bibliography 328
Index 339

Acknowledgements
It iswith much sadness that I acknowledge the great assistance of
the late Dr Raymond Greene, the eminent endocrinologist, who
died on 6 December 1982. Dr Greene, as chairman of William
Heinemann Medical Books, had published my previous work
and read successive drafts of this book, giving generously and
unstintinglyofhistimeandwisdomboth asphysicianand publisher
in its preparation, and contributing the Foreword as his final
gesture.
I would like also to thank Professor Victor Wynn, Professor of
HumanMetabolism inthe UniversityofLondon,whoread the final
draft and made manyvaluable conunents and helpful suggestions.
Neither Professor Wynn nor Dr Greene, however, is responsible
foranyerrors that mayhavecreptin.
Mythanks are due alsoto Dr C. LiII,who made various stylistic
suggestionsandwhocontributedthe greaterpart ofthe translations
fromthe German used inthe book, and DrUlrike Schauseil-Zipf,
ofCologne, whoseadditional translationswere ofverygreat help. I
would also like to acknowledge the assistance ofthe staffof the
library of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, who gave
generously of their expertise, and that of the Librarian of the
Psychology Section of the University of London Library, whose
patience and tolerance were alwaysunfailing. I want to paytribute
here alsotothe scholarship, professional expertise, and painstaking
carebrought byMindy Wernerand ScottSack ofThe Dial Press!
Doubleday to the preparation ofmy text for publication. Finally,I
gratefully acknowledge the expert secretarial assistance of Miss
Patricia Dillon and Miss Stephanie Dodridge in the preparationof
the finaldraft ofthe typescript.
E.M.T.
Foreword
This book might well be called 'The Demolition of Sigmund
Freud.' It is difficult to understand the strength of his influence
overmodem medicine, forhisteachinglacksanyscientificsupport.
In my youth, six decades ago, I was vastly intrigued by his
teaching, but enlightenment came when I began to see that no
one, in my admittedly small experience, had been cured of his
neurosis by psychoanalysis. One must be careful to avoid the post
hoc, ergopropterhocfallacy.Afewpeople were betterafter spending
whatNoel Coward called'years andyearsofexpensivehumiliation.'
Many more were better after much shorter times spent in conver
sationwithpsychiatristsofwidelydifferentschoolsandwithgeneral
practitioners, priests, favourite uncles, or evenmyself.
1have heard Freud described as 'the greatest con man in the
history of medicine.' This is unfair! He undoubtedly believed in
the truth of his hypotheses when he first pronounced them,
instanced byhis ridiculous theory ofinfantile sexuality.
Then whyhas Freud held swayforso long?1think that allmen
faced with a mystery long for clarity. Mystery is a bugbear that
physicians abhor. They have been led astray by other gurus than
Freud, but this tendency they should resist. OfSir WilliamOsier,
myoid teacher, Alexander George Gibson said, 'I have never
known any doctor say more often "I don't know.''' This is the
beginning ofwisdom.
Freud had a scientific training that should have protected him
from the prevalent medical vice of explaining one mystery by the
substitution of another. 1think Miss Thornton's view,so ablyset
forth in this book, that the answer layin his addiction to cocaine
has much to recommend it.
RAYMOND GREENE
Harley Street
London, England
March 1982
Introduction
Probably no single individual has had a more profound effect on
twentieth-century thought than Sigmund Freud. His works have
influenced psychiatry, anthropology, social work, penology, and
education and provided aseeminglylimitlesssource ofmaterial for
novelistsand dramatists. Freud has created 'a whole new climate
ofopinion'; forbetter or worse he has changed the faceofsociety.
The vocabularyof psychoanalysishas passed into the language of
everydaylife. Freud himselfhas been described as a genius ofthe
stature ofNewton, Einstein, Darwin,and Copernicus.
Yetthisbookmakesthe heretical claimthat hiscentral postulate,
the 'unconscious mind,' does not exist, that his theories were
baseless and aberrational, and, greatest impiety of all, that Freud
himself, when he formulated them, was under the influence ofa
toxicdrug withspecificeffectson the brain. These are bold claims
to make about one of the 'latter-day saints' of the twentieth
century. But they are amply substantiated in the chapters that
follow.
Freud's early experiments with cocaine and his own use of the
newly synthesized drug as a medication in the years 1884 to 1887
is knownfrom his earlypapers and appears in all his biographies.
But it has always been assumed that he ceased the practice in
1887,yearsbefore he began hismajor psychoanalyticalwork.This
book presents evidence that Freud resumed his use ofcocaine in
the latter half of 1892, the year coinciding with the emergence of
his revolutionarynewtheories, and asserts that these theories were
the direct outcome ofthis usage. None ofthis istobe found inthe
definitivebiography by Ernest jones, yet all the clues are there,
unnoticed inthe thirtyyearssince itspublication.
This book could almost be termed 'an alternative biography' in
that mostofthe main factscovered byjones's TheLift andWork of
Sigmund Freud appear here. But the same facts are nowshown to
be elements ofan entirelydifferent story from that toldbyjones, a
storyconcealed from the world for over eightyyears. Ernestjones