An Anatomy of Addiction

Zusatztext 77515077 Informationen zum Autor Howard Markel , M.D., Ph.D., is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. His books include  Quarantine!,   When Germs Travel,  and  An Anatomy of Addiction.  His articles have appeared in  The New York Times, The Journal of the American Medical Association,  and  The New England Journal of Medicine , and he is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. Markel is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Klappentext Acclaimed medical historian Howard Markel traces the careers of two brilliant young doctors-Sigmund Freud, neurologist, and William Halsted, surgeon-showing how their powerful addictions to cocaine shaped their enormous contributions to psychology and medicine. When Freud and Halsted began their experiments with cocaine in the 1880s, neither they, nor their colleagues, had any idea of the drug's potential to dominate and endanger their lives. An Anatomy of Addiction tells the tragic and heroic story of each man, accidentally struck down in his prime by an insidious malady: tragic because of the time, relationships, and health cocaine forced each to squander; heroic in the intense battle each man waged to overcome his affliction. Markel writes of the physical and emotional damage caused by the then-heralded wonder drug, and how each man ultimately changed the world in spite of it-or because of it. One became the father of psychoanalysis; the other, of modern surgery. Here is the full story, long overlooked, told in its rich historical context. Prologue   On the morning of May 5, 1885, in lower Manhattan, a worker fell from a building’s scaffolding to the ground. A splintered bone protruded from his bloody trousers; a plaintive wail signaled his pain; and soon he was taken from the scene by horse-drawn ambulance to Bellevue Hospital. At the hospital, in the dispensary, a young surgeon named William Stewart Halsted frantically searched the shelves for a container of cocaine.   In the late nineteenth century, there were no such things as “controlled substances,” let alone illegal drugs. Bottles of morphine, cocaine, and other powerful, habit-forming pills and tonics were easily found in virtually every hospital, clinic, drugstore, and doctor’s black bag. Consequently, it took less than a few minutes for the surgeon to ?nd a vial of cocaine. He drew a precise dose into a hypodermic syringe, rolled up his sleeve, and searched for a fresh spot on his scarred forearm. Upon doing so, he inserted the needle and pushed down on the syringe’s plunger. Almost immediately, he felt a wave of relief and an overwhelming sense of euphoria. His pulse bounded and his mind raced, but his body, paradoxically, relaxed.   The orderlies rushed the laborer into Bellevue’s accident room (the forerunner of today’s emergency departments) for examination and treatment. A compound fracture—the breaking of a bone so severely that it pokes through the soft tissue and skin—was deadly serious in the late nineteenth century. Before X-ray technology, it was dif?cult to assess the full extent of a fracture other than by means of painful palpation or cutting open the body part in question for a closer look. Discounting the attendant risks of infection and subsequent amputation, even in the best of surgical hands these injuries often carried a “hopeless prognosis.” At Bellevue, above the table on which these battered patients were placed, a sign painted on the wall suggested the chances of recuperation. It read, in six-inch-high black letters: PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD.   As the worker writhed in agony, one surgeon’s name crossed the lips of every staff member working in the accident room: Halsted. When ...

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A tour de force of scientific and social history, one that helps illuminate a unique period in the long story of medical discovery. . . . Absorbing and thoroughly documented . . . a vivid narrative of two of the most remarkable of the many contributors to our understanding of human biology and function.
The New York Times Book Review 
 
Incisive. . . . An irresistible cautionary tale.
The Wall Street Journal 

Terrific. . . . This rich, engrossing book reminds us of the strangeness of even heroic destinies.
Los Angeles Times
 
Markel creates rich portraits of men who shared, as he writes of Freud, a 'particular constellation of bold risk taking, emotional scar tissue, and psychic turmoil.'
The New Yorker

A rich, revelatory new book. . . . [Markel is] a careful writer and a tireless researcher, and as a trained physician himself, Markel is able to pronounce on medical matters with firmness and authority.
TIME
 
A splendid history . . . [Markel is a] fluent, incisive and often subtly funny writer.
The Baltimore Sun 
 
Provocative . . . persuasive and engrossing.
Salon.com 

"Compelling and compassionate . . . a book that profoundly demonstrates the complexity and breadth of their genius . . . a richly woven analysis complete with anecdotes, historical research, photos and present-day knowledge about the character of the addictive personality."
Booklist

From the dramatic opening scene on the first page to the epilogue, An Anatomy of Addiction is a hugely satisfying read. Howard Markel is physician, historian and wonderful storyteller, and since his tale involves two of the most compelling characters in medicine, I could not put it down addictive is the word for this terrific book.
Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

It s a fascinating book about fascinating men, but even more interesting for those of us who want a glimpse of modern medicine when it was just starting to develop.
The New Republic
 
Dr. Markel braids these men s stories intricately, intelligently and often elegantly.
The New York Times
 
Markel brilliantly describes the paradox of [Halsted s and Freud s] lives.
Nature
 
Inspired, entertaining and informative . . . [Markel] tells this fascinating tale in an insightful contemporary book that is both intellectually engaging and exceptionally well written.
Journal of the American Medical Association
 
[A] witty, wide-ranging book.
Boston Globe
 
A richly engaging book . . . highly recommended.
Wired
 
Well-researched. . . . A thoughtful picture of late 19th century medicine.
The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
 
Colorful study . . . brisk . . . an engaging well-researched historical homily about fame and foible.
Bloomberg
 
A fascinating revelation of conditions prevailing in hospitals and medical circles in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
New York Journal of Books
 
The best medical histories are the ones that cause the imagination to run riot. A fast-rising master of satisfying this human quest for mind-altering willies is the Michigan medical historian Howard Markel.
The Winnipeg Free Press
 
With both wit and style, Markel has produced a scrupulously researched, meticulously detailed account of the history of cocaine, as well as the drug dependences of Halsted and Freud.
Hopkins Medicine Magazine

Product details

• Authors: Howard Markel
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 31.07.2012
• EAN: 9781400078790
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-7879-0
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 205 mm x 17 mm
• Series: VINTAGE BOOKS
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies