Thursday, May 06, 2010

Cigars, Sex, and Cocaine


I figured that title was a pretty good way to grab attention. The fellow above is one Sigmund Freud born this day in Priobr, Austria-Hungary. Once again I have another larger than life, and bigger than my talent to write a post about, hero of the day. We all should have some working knowledge about our boy Sigmund, and of course it is all about sex. He was also one the earliest people to use cocaine for medicinal purposes. Writing several articles on cocaine on the antidepressant qualities of the drug. In fact, he just missed out on having scientific priority for discovering the use of cocaine as an anesthetic (as it was used with good effect as one in certain types of eye surgeries). However, the recreational use of the drug, and the face that one of Freud's close friends,a fellow by the name of Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, eventually died because of his addiction to cocaine (he was using it on Freud's recommendation to help combat an heroin addiction), damaged Freud's reputation a great deal. We all have at least a vague notion of the id, ego, and super ego, and on his work with the interpretation of dreams. Read them yourselves for your own theories on it, and maybe, after I finish the 800 page biography of Freud that is sitting on my desk, I will be able to come back, and edit this post with more in-depth thought. I would not count on it, since I am not much of a editor, and since there is about 15 books in front of the biography, but we can always hope for the best. The picture above shows Freud with his trademark cigar in hand, he was a heavy, heavy smoker, and had to endure over 30 operations in his life due to oral cancer. After fleeing the Nazis, he committed suicide, with the aid of a doctor friend (who gave him large doses of morphine). However, he remains a central figure in the field of psychology, and though some of his theories have been proved to be absolute horse shit, he is still one of the starting points. So, for showing us that cocaine, cigars, and sex have their place in the world, Sigmund Freud (May 6th, 1856-September 23rd, 1939, at the age of 83), you are my (253rd) hero of the day.

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