The Making of Addiction: The 'Use and Abuse' of Opium in Nineteenth-Century BritainWhat does drug addiction mean to us? What did it mean to others in the past? And how are these meanings connected? In modern society the idea of drug addiction is a given and commonly understood concept, yet this was not always the case in the past. This book uncovers the original influences that shaped the creation and the various interpretations of addiction as a disease, and of addiction to opiates in particular. It delves into the treatments, regimes, and prejudices that surrounded the condition, a newly emerging pathological entity and a form of 'moral insanity' during the nineteenth century. The source material for this book is rich and surprising. Letters and diaries provide the most moving material, detailing personal struggles with addiction and the trials of those who cared and despaired. Confessions of shame, deceit, misery and terror sit alongside those of deep sensual pleasure, visionary manifestations and blissful freedom from care. The reader can follow the lifelong opium careers of literary figures, artists and politicians, glimpse a raw underworld of hidden drug use, or see the bleakness of urban and rural poverty alleviated by daily doses of opium. Delving into diaries, letters and confessions this book exposes the medical case histories and the physician's mad, lazy, commercial, contemptuous, desperate, altruistic and frustrated attempts to deal with drug addiction. It demonstrates that many of the stigmatising prejudices arose from false 'facts' and semi-mythical beliefs and thus has significant implications, not only for the history of addiction, but also for how we view the condition today. |
Contents
The Experience of Addiction in the Early Nineteenth Century | |
Fact and Fiction | |
The Chinese Influence | |
Poisonous Drugs and the Medical Profession in the Nineteenth Century | |
The Enquiries of Medicine into Addiction | |
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abuse action alcohol amongst Anstie anxieties appeared argued argument arsenic Beard behaviour believed Berridge and Edwards Blackwood’s Magazine Bleak House British Medical Journal Charles Lamb Chinese Christison chronic Coleridge’s concept of addiction condition Confessions craving Cure Dante Gabriel Rossetti death described despite doctor dose drug Edinburgh Medical effects of opium excessive experience fear feelings Hayter History human Ibid idea individual indulged insanity Jennings Lancet laudanum London Medical Jurisprudence medical profession Medicine mental Middlemarch mind moral morphia Morphia Habit narcotic nature nervous Neurasthenia nineteenth century observation opiates opinion opium addiction opium-eater opium-smoking Oscar Wilde ounce pain patient physician physiological pleasure poison Porter practice psychological published quantity Quincey Quincey’s recognised revealed Romantic Imagination Samuel Taylor Coleridge scientific sensation smoking social society Spencer Stimulants and Narcotics substance suffering suggested suicide symptoms taking opium theory Thomas De Quincey thought treatment Victorian whilst Wilkie Collins wrote