Product Description

As a founder of UCLA's Affective Disorder Clinic and a co-author of a standard medical text, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison may be the foremost authority on manic-depressive illness.  She is also one of its survivors.  And it is this dual perspective -- as healer and healed -- that makes Jamison's memoir so lucid, learned, and profoundly affecting.

Even as she was pursuing her psychiatric training, Jamison found herself succumbing to the exhilarating highs and paralyzing lows that afflicted many of her patients. Though the disorder brought her seemingly boundless energy and mercurial creativity, it also propelled her into spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempt at suicide.  

Powerfully candid, exceptionally wise, An Unquiet Mind is one of those rare books that has the power to transform lives -- and even save them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #482 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-14
• Released on: 1997-01-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.com Review
In Touched with Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatrist, turned a mirror on the creativity so often associated with mental illness. In this book she turns that mirror on herself. With breathtaking honesty she tells of her own manic depression, the bitter costs of her illness, and its paradoxical benefits: "There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness and terror involved in this kind of madness.... It will never end, for madness carves its own reality." This is one of the best scientific autobiographies ever written, a combination of clarity, truth, and insight into human character. "We are all, as Byron put it, differently organized," Jamison writes. "We each move within the restraints of our temperament and live up only partially to its possibilities." Jamison's ability to live fully within her limitations is an inspiration to her fellow mortals, whatever our particular burdens may be. --Mary Ellen Curtin

From Publishers Weekly
Jamison's memoir springs from her dual perspective as both a psychiatric expert in manic depression and a sufferer of the disease.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This incredibly insightful work chronicles the life of a psychologist and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University who suffers from manic depression. Jamison began experiencing mood swings during adolescence but, despite her education and training, did not seek help until she had completed her doctorate and began teaching at UCLA. Like so many others suffering from manic depression, she felt initially that the depressions were only passing phases she'd have to work out herself. She experienced the manic phases as great periods of creativity and accomplishment and feared they would be deadened by using medication. (In an earlier book, Touched with Fire, LJ 2/15/93, Jamison explored the relationship between manic depression and creativity.) Jamison finally comes to grips with her illness and recognizes the importance of medication used in conjunction with psychotherapy. This combination of treatment controls her illness and has enabled her to succeed. Her story and writing style are both inspirational and educational. Highly recommended for all libraries.
Jennifer Amador, Central State Hosp. Medical Lib., Petersburg, Va.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Kay Jamisons credentials
I'd just like to correct something is one of the reviews.

Kay Jamison is not a psychiatrist. She is a psychologist who heads a psychiatric department. If you have read this book, you know that.

I've read over a dozen books on Bipolar Disorder. Being Bipolar myself, I really felt a kinship with Kay. My family also read this book and tell me that they now have a better understanding of my illness.

A very good book.

Really Helps to Understand
Like others, I came away from this book with a far greater understanding, and more sympathetic view of those people in my life who suffer with manic-depression. I have good friends and cousins who wrestle with this disease, and though I tried to empathize, of course I couldn't.

The one question I have, though, is that I thought people with manic depression who are on lithium should NOT drink alcohol? Certainly, the good doctor doesn't sound like an alcoholic, but there's plenty of mention of drinking... someone, please set me straight...

An interesting read.
This was the first stand alone book on Bipolar I have read, and the only one most of my family has read. It is based on the lived experiences of a Bipolar I sufferer (lack of a better word). Kay is a good writter but gets bogged down in accademia speak which is a bit distracting. Unlike the text book she has co written, in comparison, this is easy to read. I still sugest you read it, and keep it on your book shelf, as it promotes bipolar as something normal inteligent successful people can have, instead of the stigma that all people with Bipolar are stupid and dangerous.