  We present a study of the normal state optical conductivity in the cuprate
superconductors using the nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquid (NAFL)
description of the magnetic interaction between their planar quasiparticles. We
find that the highly anisotropic scattering rate in different regions of the
Brillouin zone, both as a function of frequency and temperature, a benchmark of
NAFL theory, leads to an average relaxation rate of the Marginal Fermi Liquid
form for overdoped and optimally doped systems, as well as for underdoped
systems at high temperatures. We carry out numerical calculations of the
optical conductivity for several compounds for which the input spin fluctuation
parameters are known. Our results, which are in agreement with experiment on
both overdoped and optimally doped systems, show that NAFL theory explains the
anomalous optical behavior found in these cuprate superconductors.
