Saturday, February 28, 2015
An Anatomy of Addiction
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine (Vintage) Paperback – July 3, 2012
Author: Visit Amazons Howard Markel Page | Language: English | ISBN: 1400078792 | Format: PDF, EPUB
- Description
- Book Details
- Table of Contents
- Reviews
Direct download links available An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine (Vintage) Paperback – July 3, 2012 from with Mediafire Link Download Link
Review
“A tour de force of scientific and social history, one that helps illuminate a unique period in the long story of medical discovery. . . . Absorbing and thoroughly documented . . . a vivid narrative of two of the most remarkable of the many contributors to our understanding of human biology and function.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Incisive. . . . An irresistible cautionary tale.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Terrific. . . . This rich, engrossing book reminds us of the strangeness of even heroic destinies.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Markel creates rich portraits of men who shared, as he writes of Freud, a particular constellation of bold risk taking, emotional scar tissue, and psychic turmoil.“
—The New Yorker
“A rich, revelatory new book. . . . [Markel is] a careful writer and a tireless researcher, and as a trained physician himself, Markel is able to pronounce on medical matters with firmness and authority.”
—TIME
“A splendid history . . . [Markel is a] fluent, incisive and often subtly funny writer.”
—The Baltimore Sun
“Provocative . . . persuasive and engrossing.”
—Salon.com
"Compelling and compassionate . . . a book that profoundly demonstrates the complexity and breadth of their genius . . . a richly woven analysis complete with anecdotes, historical research, photos and present-day knowledge about the character of the addictive personality."
—Booklist
“From the dramatic opening scene on the first page to the epilogue, An Anatomy of Addiction is a hugely satisfying read. Howard Markel is physician, historian and wonderful storyteller, and since his tale involves two of the most compelling characters in medicine, I could not put it down—addictive is the word for this terrific book.”
—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
“It’s a fascinating book about fascinating men, but even more interesting for those of us who want a glimpse of modern medicine when it was just starting to develop.”
—The New Republic
“Dr. Markel braids these men’s stories intricately, intelligently and often elegantly.”
—The New York Times
“Markel brilliantly describes the paradox of [Halsted’s and Freud’s] lives.”
—Nature
“Inspired, entertaining and informative . . . [Markel] tells this fascinating tale in an insightful contemporary book that is both intellectually engaging and exceptionally well written.”
—Journal of the American Medical Association
“[A] witty, wide-ranging book.”
—Boston Globe
“A richly engaging book . . . highly recommended.”
—Wired
“Well-researched. . . . A thoughtful picture of late 19th century medicine.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
“Colorful study . . . brisk . . . an engaging well-researched historical homily about fame and foible.”
—Bloomberg
“A fascinating revelation of conditions prevailing in hospitals and medical circles in the late 19th and 20th centuries.”
—New York Journal of Books
“The best medical histories are the ones that cause the imagination to run riot. A fast-rising master of satisfying this human quest for mind-altering willies is the Michigan medical historian Howard Markel.”
—The Winnipeg Free Press
“With both wit and style, Markel has produced a scrupulously researched, meticulously detailed account of the history of cocaine, as well as the drug dependences of Halsted and Freud.”
—Hopkins Medicine Magazine
About the Author
Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. His books include Quarantine! and When Germs Travel. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The New England Journal of Medicine, and he is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. Markel is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Direct download links available for An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine – July 3, 2012
- Series: Vintage
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (July 3, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400078792
- ISBN-13: 978-1400078790
- Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( F ) > Freud, Sigmund
- #35 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Social Scientists & Psychologists
- #87 in Books > Medical Books > History
In Howard Markels "An Anatomy of Addiction," two renowned figures are attracted to "a miracle drug" that reduced appetite and the need for sleep, sharpened ones focus, relieved depression, and induced a feeling of euphoria. It also had anesthetic properties that could be useful for surgeons performing dental or ophthalmological procedures. Both Sigmund Freud, the pioneering psychoanalyst, and William Halsted, one of the greatest surgeons of his time, were fascinated by this drug and decided to try it out on themselves. As a result, both became addicted to cocaine.
Dr. Markels command of his subject is impressive; his excellent source materials include letters, journal articles, and monographs. The author provides enlightening background information about medical practice in the nineteenth century, especially in the United States and Vienna. He vividly describes Bellevue Hospital in New York City, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna, large complexes that were bursting at the seams with both affluent and indigent patients. Young physicians-in-training flocked to these institutions to learn from more experienced and skilled medical practitioners.
It is fascinating to learn how naïve people were concerning cocaines short and long-term effects. The same could be said of opium, morphine, and laudanum, all of which were dispensed liberally to treat a host of complaints. No one understood the underlying nature of addiction. There were no "rehabs." If someone were unfortunate enough to become dependent on a drug, he or she would have a very difficult time breaking the habit. Freud and Halsted were particularly susceptible to this disease because of who they were.
Both Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, and William Halsted, originator of modern surgery, practiced medicine in the 1880s and experimented on themselves and others with cocaines possible therapeutic uses. Freud was interested in it as an antidote for morphine addiction and as treatment for addiction, Halsted saw it as a possible anesthetic. Freud found the drug cured his indigestion, dulled his aches, and relieved his depression. After taking the drug for a few months Freud shifted from his initial focus on neurology to psychology/psychiatry. Halsted became professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and devised new and safer surgical techniques - while struggling with his addiction acquired experimenting.
An Anatomy of Addiction opens with a laborer being admitted to Bellevue Hospital with a serious compound fracture of the leg. Staff called upon Halsted, their best surgeon, but he had just taken a dose of cocaine. He took one look at the patient and went home to a seven-month cocaine oblivion. Meanwhile, in Europe Freud was using the drug to self-medicate his own anxieties. At the time almost 15% of prescriptions contained cocaine, there were no controlled substances, and addiction was not yet a medical diagnosis. Other users of the day included Ulysses Grant, Queen Victoria, the Shah of Peria, Thomas Edison, and Arthur Conan Doyle (also a physician).
Freuds career goals was to be appointed to a faculty position at the Vienna Medical School, and saw lab experimentation as his preferred means of getting it. His focus on cocaine was initially motivated by a desire to help a friend, Dr. Fleischl-Marxow, addicted to morphine because of the intense, chronic pain created by a non-healing amputation.
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine – July 3, 2012 Download
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