A little cocaine to loosen my tongue

<p class=ql-align-justify>I was very handsome and made the best impression on myself. We took a car (sharing the expenses). Ricchetti was terribly nervous I was quite serene thanks to a small dose of cocaine although his success was assured and I had every reason to fear ridicule. (...) This is how I have performed (or rather how the cocaine has performed) and I am very satisfied.</p><p class=ql-align-right>Freud letter to Martha dated January 20 1886.</p><p class=ql-align-justify> </p><p class=ql-align-justify>During the 1880s the young Freud who had not yet explored the labyrinths of the unconscious tried to make a name for himself by publishing studies on erythroxylon coca a plant from which an alkaloid cocaine was made and whose properties he praised. To these studies which the French-speaking reader will find here in a new translation we enclose some letters to Martha Bernays his future wife which shed light on Freud's intimacy with the drug.</p>