4 ms·

See also: William James was experimenting with nitrous oxide in 1882 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/the-nitrous-oxide-philosopher/376581/

See also: William James was experimenting with nitrous oxide in 1882 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/the-nitrous-oxide-philosopher/376581/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/the-nit... When I was a lad, the common wisdom was that cocaine was not addictive. This was also later said about nitrous oxide. I found out to my great ruin that both can be highly addictive to certain people. Sounds to me like Freud wasn't an addict.

pmoriarty 5y ago
"Sounds to me like Freud wasn't an addict." He definitely was. From some other articles: Freud "was using cocaine quite a bit in 1895 on himself, to the point he was having chest pain. He was depressed. And he also -- his nose was so congested, he had to have a surgeon open it up with a knife so he could breathe, lots of signs that you might want to lay off the stuff."[1] "At no point in his letters does Freud consider the possibility that cocaine may produce adverse effects, or indeed any effects apart from those he values. This is clearly illustrated in another letter: "… I was suffering from migraine, the third attack this week, by the way, although I am otherwise in excellent health. I took some cocaine, watched the migraine vanish at once, went on writing my paper as well as a letter to Professor Mendel, but I was so wound up that I had to go on working and writing and couldn't get to sleep before four in the morning." It does not appear from this letter that Freud was aware of the connection between his use of cocaine and his being wound up and unable to sleep."[2] "Freud, for a few years, became such a regular consumer that his nose was red and wet. To put an end to the bad habit of drinking, he tried to keep busy as long as possible: he got up at six in the morning, saw twelve patients, read and wrote until the middle of the night. Freud managed to rehabilitate himself and completely abandoned his addiction."[3] [1] - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/cocaine-how-miracle-drug-nearly-destroyed-sigmund-freud-william-halsted https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/cocaine-how-miracle-drug-n... [2] - https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/22/archives/freuds-disaster-with-cocaine.html https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/22/archives/freuds-disaster-... [3] - https://psychologysays.net/psychology/sigmund-freud-and-his-cocaine-addiction/ https://psychologysays.net/psychology/sigmund-freud-and-his-...
- op00to 5y ago
  That last reference is pretty poorly written, I’m not sure it’s a reliable source.
xyzzy123 5y ago
Yeah no2 has a repuation for being fairly harmless but it's not as widely known that it should be that using more often than once every 2 weeks is harmful due to methionine synthase inactivation & b12 deficiency.

pmoriarty 5y ago

"Sounds to me like Freud wasn't an addict." He definitely was. From some other articles: Freud "was using cocaine quite a bit in 1895 on himself, to the point he was having chest pain. He was depressed. And he also -- his nose was so congested, he had to have a surgeon open it up with a knife so he could breathe, lots of signs that you might want to lay off the stuff."[1] "At no point in his letters does Freud consider the possibility that cocaine may produce adverse effects, or indeed any effects apart from those he values. This is clearly illustrated in another letter: "… I was suffering from migraine, the third attack this week, by the way, although I am otherwise in excellent health. I took some cocaine, watched the migraine vanish at once, went on writing my paper as well as a letter to Professor Mendel, but I was so wound up that I had to go on working and writing and couldn't get to sleep before four in the morning." It does not appear from this letter that Freud was aware of the connection between his use of cocaine and his being wound up and unable to sleep."[2] "Freud, for a few years, became such a regular consumer that his nose was red and wet. To put an end to the bad habit of drinking, he tried to keep busy as long as possible: he got up at six in the morning, saw twelve patients, read and wrote until the middle of the night. Freud managed to rehabilitate himself and completely abandoned his addiction."[3] [1] - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/cocaine-how-miracle-drug-nearly-destroyed-sigmund-freud-william-halsted https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/cocaine-how-miracle-drug-n... [2] - https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/22/archives/freuds-disaster-with-cocaine.html https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/22/archives/freuds-disaster-... [3] - https://psychologysays.net/psychology/sigmund-freud-and-his-cocaine-addiction/ https://psychologysays.net/psychology/sigmund-freud-and-his-...

op00to 5y ago
That last reference is pretty poorly written, I’m not sure it’s a reliable source.

xyzzy123 5y ago

Yeah no2 has a repuation for being fairly harmless but it's not as widely known that it should be that using more often than once every 2 weeks is harmful due to methionine synthase inactivation & b12 deficiency.