As detailed in several of Philip K. Dick’s interviews, his personal life was tumultuous and varied. His struggles, which included mental health conditions, deep-seated paranoia, and drug use, affected his writing style. While these challenges and his own experiences with altered states of consciousness trickled into his work, Dick’s reading habits and history also had lasting impacts on his formation as a writer. In a 1974 interview, Dick related how he came to read science fiction: He simply bought a magazine from a drug store. He fell in love with science fiction stories, noting particularly the advantage science fiction has over fantasy to explore the possibilities of what one day might become real.

As a science fiction writer, Dick found the social and political atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s particularly conducive to exploring paranoia, government surveillance, and fears of nuclear war. Though themes such as totalitarianism and the abuse of power are constant in Dick’s work, the religious and spiritual concerns he presents also make his writing unique and influential. Existentialist in nature, Dick’s writings are deeply influenced by the writings of Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre.