Dr. Jamison is a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University. She also has struggled with bipolar disorder (otherwise known as manic-depression) for her entire life. Her topic of research and clinical expertise is bipolar disorder as well. Due to this rare combination of deep suffering and erudition, Dr. Jamison’s autobiography is of intense interest. She is able to view herself and her disease in an extraordinarily objective light. Thus, she can present her story in a helpful and enlightening manner for those affected by this form of mental illness.
Dr. Jamison traces her mental illness back to childhood, and she was always very intense. Throughout young adulthood, she cycled between times of intense mental energy and times of intense melancholia (depression). Despite knowing an obviously intense need of medication, it took her a long time to come to terms emotionally with the fact that she needed such a support. Like many who suffer from bipolar disorder, she aspired to an unrealistic goal of self-reliance and eschewed medicine.
Eventually, she capitulated to her need of drugs and took the mood stabilizer lithium. Sadly, lithium adversely affected her ability to read and to focus properly – an essential skill for a researcher and a clinician. Her disease also affected her love life as she chronicles in this book. She ended up most deeply loving men who understood and contributed to her medical condition.
This work circumspectly tells the tale of her growing up and succeeding in her career despite – and even because of – her disease. In the final chapter, She says that she would choose to have bipolar disorder instead of avoiding it if she had the choice. Her work is informative both as a memoir (as it relates to those suffering and affected by the disease) and as an educational piece (as she has started clinical centers focused on the disease). It is perhaps the most essential reading in the English language for anyone newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Sufferers can learn from her pitfalls, be wary of her difficulties, and be inspired by her strength.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison
Copyright (c) 1995, 1996
Vintage
ISBN13 9780679763307
Audiobook
Genre: Memoir/Autobiography, Disease
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