(Jones, 26) After college he did an internship at the General Hospital where he learned the various departments. (Breger, 64).
Freud's Use of Cocaine.
One of Freud's first experiments was on cocaine. Freud's ambition and a desire to make money drove him to study this new drug. His research showed that the Indians in South America used the drug to increase strength and "Forget their misfortunes." (Breger, 67) Freud's belief in the positive effects of cocaine was so strong that he experimented on his wife to be and his friends. Because Freud did not think it was addictive to him then it must not addictive to others. It would be years before Freud fully understood the addictive qualities of cocaine. Freud was very lucky his reputation was not destroyed because of his misunderstanding of the use of cocaine.
Freud as a Psychologist.
Freud's first real movement into the area that he would become famous for started when he went to France in late 1885. (Breger, 80) He went there to study under a famous physician and scientist, Jean-Martin Charcot. Charcot at this time was making the study of hysteria a respectable profession. He was also one of the first doctors to believe that things other than physical problems could cause various forms of hysteria. He was an early advocate of hypnosis to probe into the human mind. He was able to demonstrate that hypnosis could "cure" some forms of hysteria. Freud's observation of Charcot during his six months in Paris gave him the belief that there might be an unconscious mind and set him on the road that would make him a household word.
Freud left Paris early in 1886. He spent a month in Berlin studying pediatrics with Adolf Baginsky. Then he arrived in Vienna in April, where he presented a report of the activities to the professor at the University. Then he opened his own privet practice Docent in Neuropathology at the University of Vienna (Breger, 86), and received an appointment at the Kassowitz Institute, a privet hospital where he specialized in children's diseases.
