A review of Freud's early remarks on addiction : introduction from an ideal to masturbation
Authors
Loose, Rik
Issue Date
1998
Degree
Publisher
The School of Psychotherapy at SVUH
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
It is a remarkable fact that there is no real substantial psychoanalytic theory of addiction, especially given that Freud had clinical experience of working with addicts. This fact is even more remarkable when you know that one of Freud's first attempts to cure someone was his clinical intervention with his friend and colleague, Ernst von FleischI-Marxov. Freud had hoped that cocaine could help his friend to get rid of an addiction to morphine. This attempt failed and eventually von FleischI-Marxov died from a cocaine addiction. Surely these clinical encounters must have aroused Freud's interest in the problem of addiction and provoked questions regarding its metapsychology?