First published 2011
Medical historian Howard Markel examines the parallel cocaine addictions of two pioneering doctors in the 1880s. Sigmund Freud worked at Vienna General Hospital, experimenting with cocaine to treat depression and morphine addiction. He found the drug cured his indigestion and lifted his mood, leading him to publish "Über Coca" celebrating his "most gorgeous excitement." This experience shifted his focus from brain anatomy to the human psyche. Meanwhile, William Halsted at New York's Bellevue Hospital injected cocaine into his arm to test its anesthetic properties. Despite his addiction, Halsted became head of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, inventing modern surgical techniques including hand washing protocols, sterile operating rooms, and surgical gloves manufactured by Goodyear. He repeatedly committed himself to Butler Hospital to battle his cocaine dependency. Markel shows how both men transformed medicine while struggling with a drug whose addictive potential remained unknown to elite medical circles. The book reveals how their addictions both damaged and possibly contributed to their revolutionary contributions to psychoanalysis and surgery.
Genres: biography, addiction, medical, 20th-century, non-fiction, history-of-medicine, 19th-century, history-of-science
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: medical-trauma
Setting: Vienna, New York, Bellevue Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Butler Hospital
Period: 1880s
352 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, medical-trauma