Reviews

An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel

hilaritas's review against another edition

3.0

Freud and Halstead are both fascinating figures, but the author of this book never convincingly ties the two together in a way that makes sense. Presumably the idea is that one ultimately overcame his addiction while the other wrestled with it until the end, but the story is hampered by laughable prose and a muddied thesis that is not really borne out by the evidence. The book ends on a moralizing note, but it's fairly clear (and at one point expressly noted by the author) that some of the greatest innovations of one or both men are plausibly attributable to their habit. Worth reading for occasionally interesting accounts of the history of medicine, this book reads like an amateur effort, or maybe a self-published work, by an author with a professional knowledge of addiction but without the mastery of writing necessary to pull off his vision for the book.

Alternative review: Cocaine: it's a helluva drug.