An Anatomy of Addiction

Paperback, 336 pages

Published July 3, 2012 by Vintage.

ISBN:: 978-1-4000-7879-0

(1 review)

The astonishing account of the decades-long cocaine use of Sigmund Freud and William Halsted. The author discusses the physical and emotional damage caused by the constant use of the then-heralded wonder drug, and of how each man ultimately changed the world in spite of it--or because of it.

2 editions

markm reviewed An anatomy of addiction by Howard Markel

Review of 'An anatomy of addiction' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A good account of these stories. There are several things mentioned that I haven't seen elsewhere. For example, I always assumed that Halstead washed his hands in carbolic (phenol) like Lister did, but he used a series of baths of permanganate, oxalic acid and bichloride of mercury [!!!]. Markel says that they had their hands in mercuric chloride for five minutes. This seems unlikely to me. It's probably just me, but I don't see why the author sometimes refers to Dr. Halstead as Halstead and sometimes as William.