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 [[Cocaine ]] is an alkaloid extracted from coca leaves, which has been used in [[medicine]] for its analgesic and anesthetic properties.  The relation between [[cocaine]] and [[psychoanalysis]] goes back to [[Freud]]'s research in which he used the substance as an ophthalmic anesthetic. [[Cocaine]] was first used as an anesthetic [[agent ]] in [[Vienna ]] in 1884.  [[Freud ]] conducted research into the [[physiological ]] [[action ]] of the drug with a view to using it for therapeutic purposes. It  Years later [[Freud]] described the [[situation]] in these [[terms]]: "A side interest, though it was a deep one, had led me in 1884 to obtain from Merck some of what was nevertheless then the little-known alkaloid cocaine and to study its physiological action... I suggested, however, to my friend Köningstein, the ophthalmologist, that he should investigate the question of how far the anaesthetizing properties of cocaine were applicable in diseases of the eye" (1925d, pp. 14-15).  Ernest [[Jones]] (1953) reports that in 1884 [[Freud]] administered injections of cocaine to his friend Ernst von Fleischl in [[order]] to wean him off his morphine [[addiction]] and to ease his colleagueterrible trigeminal neuralgia.  One year later he observed that the massive doses of cocaine required by Fleischl had led to chronic [[intoxication]].  He thus discovered the toxicity of [[cocaine]], which stood in the way of its [[being]] used medically.   Coca leaves and [[cocaine]] had been used in the Americas as stimulants to fight fatigue and hunger, but their use led to neurochemical and physiological effects as well as severe addiction problems. [[Psychoanalysis]] has studied the underlying dynamics and the [[unconscious]] [[fantasies]] that [[drive]] [[patient]]s to seek out the chemical and physiological effects of [[cocaine]] in a compulsive manner.  [[Patients]] sometimes seek out this toxic substance as a stimulant or an anti-depressant in order to conceal states of [[depression]].  Some drug addicts unable to [[work]] through their grief develop pathological [[mourning]] wherein they [[identify]] with the lost [[dead]] [[object]](s), Carlthus [[unconsciously]] putting their lives in grave [[danger]]. Their repeated risk taking allows [[them]] to feel as if they are conquering [[death]] and are being resuscitated. This fantasied resurrection represents success to these addicts, in whose [[mental]] [[state]] the [[psychological]] notions of danger, [[death]], and [[suicide]] do not [[exist]].  The [[psychoanalytic]] [[interpretation]] therefore must direct itself to the uncovering and [[interpreting]] of their resurrection fantasies and thus lead them to give up [[living]] within a dead object or give up [[identifying]] with a dead person. [[Alienation]][[Fantasy]] * [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1925d). An autobiographical study. SE, 20: 1-74.

[[Category:Sigmund Freud]]