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Histories of Dreams and Dreaming pp 63–90Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Thomas De Quincey and the Fluid Movement Between Literary and Scientific Writings on Dream-Inducing Drugs

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Abstract

This chapter argues that Thomas De Quincey’s autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater propelled the production of drug autobiographies, temperance confessions, fiction and philosophical enquiry. In line with this main thesis, the chapter is divided into three sections. The first explores the physiological and psychological symptoms that accompanied the dreams De Quincey suffered and often enjoyed while in the drug’s grips. The second traces how nineteenth-century drug autobiographies obsessively referenced De Quincey’s Confessions, and studies how authors and drug users reproduced their personal experiences, both physical and psychological, for the consumption of the general public. Finally, the third section explores how this popular fascination with drugs and dreams contributed to the increasing interest of contemporary physicians in conducting medical professional studies of various dream-inducing drugs.

I gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. Charis Charalampous, University of Cambridge, for the insightful contributions he made to this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the establishment of the genre drug autobiography and its difference from teetotal and temperance confessions and fiction and from sensational drug-use narratives influenced by medical case studies, see Zieger (2007). For more on drug-and-addiction autobiography with respect to De Quincey, see Leask (1992), Wilner (1981) and Schmitt (2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cyprus, Cyprus, Cyprus

    Thalia Trigoni

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  1. Thalia Trigoni
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  1. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Giorgia Morgese

  2. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Giovanni Pietro Lombardo

  3. Durham, NC, USA

    Hendrika Vande Kemp

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Trigoni, T. (2019). Thomas De Quincey and the Fluid Movement Between Literary and Scientific Writings on Dream-Inducing Drugs. In: Morgese, G., Pietro Lombardo, G., Vande Kemp, H. (eds) Histories of Dreams and Dreaming. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16530-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16530-7_4

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16529-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16530-7

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