Cocaine-Abuse Books

British author Elizabeth Marianne Thornton published this 272 page, "The Freudian Fallacy An Alternative View of Freudian Theory" (originally titled "Freud and Cocaine: The Freudian Fallacy") in 1984. Her book was based on how the supposed addiction to cocaine (at the time not illegal or completely understood) sculpted the work of Austrian born neuropathologist and founder of psychoanalysis, Sigismund Schlomo Freud, M.D. (1856-1939); gleaned mainly from letters between he and another cocaine user, German otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess, M.D., in the late 19th century. Her project attempts to dismantle Freud's entire psychology.

This work, as "Freud and Cocaine: the Freudian Fallacy" (340 pages), was reviewed by Scottish born psychiatrist Henry Rapoport Rollin, M.D., Honorary Librarian, Royal College of Psychiatrists, in the June, 1984 "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine." Therein he says, "How...could...Thornton, who has no medical qualifications and...cannot...have ever taken a history or examined a patient, have...an encyclopaedic knowledge of medicine....This has been achieved, so the dust-jacket informs us, by attending 'the undergraduate teaching in neurology at a major London teaching hospital' at which she is...a research assistant and departmental librarian...(the...hospital and...subject...she researches are not disclosed). However...Thornton...can...demolish the concept of psychosomatic medicine...pontificate on every aspect of psychiatry...attribute just about every psychiatric illness to organic brain disease, and in particular to temporal lobe epilepsy." Further, he comments, "According to...Thornton, Freud is not only a cheat and a liar, but had...brain damage or...neurosis or psychosis (the two terms are used indiscriminately). And why?...because for a...period...Freud snorted cocaine...Thornton...is convinced...Freud's theories...innovative to others...evolved under...cocaine's toxic effects." Rollin quotes Thornton saying, "'Freud's concept of the "unconscious" mind must be attributed to his cocaine usage.'" Would this also mean that 17th-18th century German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, LLD, was addicted to cocaine when he formulated his concept of "unconscious perceptions"?

Also note that German born American cultural historian/trained psychoanalyst, Peter Gay, Ph.D., penned an 800+ page, national bestseller, ''Freud A Life for Our Time,'' in 1988, after the arrival of Thornton's work, which he nowhere refers to. In it, he does say, regarding, for instance, Martha Bernays receiving shipments of cocaine from Freud, whom she was betrothed to, ''There is no evidence, though, that she (or for that matter, her fiance) ever acquired the habit.''

Even British Freud critic and cultural historian Richard Webster, in his "Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis" (1995), says of Thornton's work (which he admired), "The thesis...of her book is that Freud...became a cocaine addict and...his theories were...shaped by his addiction. This argument...while...the most sensational...in Thornton's book, is not the most important...more significant is....Thornton's...contention...that...many...conditions... diagnosed as hysteria were...organic illnesses which escaped...Freud...or...nineteenth century medicine....is pushed to extremes...in which she seeks organic causes for everything...for example, that agoraphobia is...caused by disorders of the inner ear which affect the sense of balance."

Thornton alludes to three authors on different issues, below, complaining that they didn't have access to all Freudian files for their research. Note that, sometimes, the Freud family would of course be warry of personal items contained therein, that may slight relatives later if released to gossip styled journalists.

However, American historian of psychoanalysis, Paul Roazen, Ph.D. (political science), was the first person who wasn't a psychoanalyst allowed entry to the British Psychoanalytic Institute's library (containing all the materials Welsh born psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and biographer Ernest Alfred Jones, M.D., used to compile his 1953-57, three volume set, "The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud"). I don't know how many people Thornton interviewed for her book, but Roazen interviewed over 135--early analysts and Freud's patients, family and personal friends--for his 1971, 600 page volume, "Freud and His Followers." In it he tells us, "In 1884 Freud began experimenting--on himself, Martha, his sisters, as well as others--with the way cocaine could relieve anxiety and depression." However, no mention of addiction, but utilizing Thornton's reasoning were the aforementioned, addicts too?

Also, American historian of science Frank Jones Sulloway, Ph.D., in his 1979, 600+ page book "Freud, Biologist of the Mind" (Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society winner, 1980), states, pertaining to the cocaine issue, "...Freud, for one, never became addicted to the drug even though he used it for more than a decade."

Further, British author of biography, Ronald William Clark, who acquired access to a plethora of new materials on Freud/psychoanalysis, from family and professional correspondence, and archives, for his 650+ page tome, "Freud: The Man and the Cause" (1980), said, regarding his use of the drug in the mid 1880's, "Freud himself was to continue taking cocaine for another year or more without any side effects." (At least not those of an addict.)

After Thornton's book came out and all the Freud-Fliess letters were released, American psychology professor Paul C. Vitz, Ph.D., in his "Sigmund Freud's Christian Unconscious" (1993), remarked, "My primary critique of Thornton is that much of Freud's psychology was clearly apparent before he took cocaine," and, as well, "...cocaine did not create the primary content and structure of Freud's mind and thought." He explains that Fliess, another cocaine user, mentioned above, influenced Freud while on the drug, but that he and Freud had different psychological perspectives: the former, the sexual importance of the nose, and female/male sexual periods of 28/23 days, unlike the latter, who studied fantasies and dreams, and childhood sexuality. The elated state that accompanies cocaine use could also be found in Freud's colourful letters to associates before he came across the drug. Subsequent depression following cocaine use was, in fact, something he suffered from before he ever administered the drug on himself. He points out that Thornton believed Freud may have taken the drug until 1912, but adds we now know he ceased using it in October, 1896.

The March 29, 1999 issue of "Time" magazine included Freud among a list of the 20 greatest scientific minds from its roster of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Hardly credible that a man who wrote so lucidly and profoundly as Sigmund Freud had for so much of his life, could have once been so addicted to cocaine, or, that all of his influential theories would someday, as Thornton believed "...have been consigned to oblivion."

In conclusion, I do not envision a burgeoning argument in E.M. Thornton's "The Freudian Fallacy," where the flower lady grows a beanstalk beyond the grey matter stratosphere.