Final answer:
Dr. Sigmund Freud's unsuccessful use of cocaine for treatment lay in the drug's addictive properties and harmful health effects. He understood that despite education and rational politics, human behavior could succumb to self-destructive patterns, paralleling how addiction overrides self-control.
Step-by-step explanation:
Dr. Sigmund Freud was a pioneering figure in the field of psychoanalysis and he attempted to use cocaine as a treatment for various ailments including depression and morphine addiction. However, his use of cocaine was unsuccessful due to the drug's highly addictive nature and the severe side effects associated with its use. Cocaine affects the reward pathway in the brain, leading to tolerance, addiction, and potentially severe health risks including increased chances of death, infectious diseases, and cardiovascular issues. The generally optimistic Freud could not have predicted the devastating impact that cocaine would have on both individual health and society at large, as he lived during a time where the full effects of such substances were not yet fully understood. Freud was known for his views on the lack of complete self-control and rationality in humans, which is evident in the context of cocaine addiction. He argued that despite education and rational politics, societies are not immune to self-destructive behaviors, much like the individuals who succumb to the addictive grip of drugs. Even as Freud fled the Nazi invasion of Austria, he became an example of the limitations of self-control against powerful external and internal forces, such as addiction.