In Civilization and it's Discontents Freud offers three main ways people escape from the torments of daily life. One of these was intoxication, though Freud referenced only alcohol I would include drug use in his definition of intoxication. With including drugs, like cocaine, this made me wonder if Freud had been using them to perhaps escape from his own daily toils. It also made me wonder if there was a particular reason why he did not list drug use as a form of intoxication. Since Freud was without religion, he may have turned to another form of "salvation" to battle against life's sufferings.
I think it kind of goes without saying that drug use is included in that.
ReplyDeleteHabitual drug use may have not been as common back then, given the scarcity of drugs that are now in abundance today so alcohol would have been an example that made sense; while there could have been other drugs, such as cocaine, I can't really picture an elderly Freud jonesin' for his fix.
We have lots of evidence that he got quite a kick out of cocaine as a young man. He also researched it.
ReplyDeleteThere was actually quite a drug culture in central Europe in the 1920s--cocaine, morphine, even heroin. In fact, a lot of these drugs were developed by Germans.
But by this time Freud was pretty established and needed to be able to think clearly when he was analyzing his patients. So I think Mike is right.
Interestingly, we don't hear that Freud was an intemperate drinker--he doesn't seem to have had an addictive personality.