‘Worthy doctors […] allow me to come forward and lecture on this matter’: Thomas De Quincey and the experiential and sociocultural components of substance use
BJPsych Bulletin May 4, 2026 Nicholas Griffin, Alexander Smith, Michael Liebrenz
Thomas De Quincey's 1821 autobiographical work, 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater,' offers a subjective and objective account of his opium use and dependence, recorded before psychiatry was established. His self-analysis foreshadows psychoanalytic methods and psychopharmacology. The text raises questions for medical humanities about the patient's voice, therapeutic creativity, and literature as a record of lived experience, underscoring literature's relevance for psychiatric practitioners.