An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness - Softcover

Jamison, Kay Redfield

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679763309 ISBN 13: 9780679763307

Publisher: Vintage, 1996

WITH A NEW PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

In her bestselling classic, An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison changed the way we think about moods and madness.

Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.

Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom—a deeply powerful book that has both transformed and saved lives.

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 the Publisher:

"It stands alone in the literature of manic depression for its bravery, brilliance and beauty."
--Oliver Sacks

"The most emotionally moving book I've ever read about emotions."
--William Safire, The New York Times Magazine

"An invaluable memoir of manic depression, at once medically knowledgeable, deeply human, and beautifully written ... at times poetic, at times straightforward, always unashamedly honest."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Written with poetic and moving sensitivity ... a rare and insightful view of mental illness from inside the mind of a trained specialist."
--Time

"A distinguished addition to the literature of mental illness, worthy of comparison to the classics in the genre, such as William Styron's Darkness Visible."
--Newark Star-Ledger

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679763309
• ISBN 13: 9780679763307
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224