She is very open about her struggle to accept her diagnosis and the attached stigma.
She described the “particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness… You are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and totally enmeshed in the blackest caves of the mind.”Many of the challenges Jamison has faced will sound very familiar to anyone living with a mood disorder. The author is extremely insightful, and does an excellent job of capturing in words what mental illness feels like. The book captures her journey with bipolar disorder, from its emergence in her late teens to the effects it has had on her accomplished career as a clinical psychologist and university professor.The book contains rich descriptions, and is searingly honest with no attempt to gloss over the messy and downright ugly bits of mental illness. Read moreĪn Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison is an intimate look into the havoc that bipolar disorder can wreak. From her jubilant childhood to the disquiet that has dominated her adult life, she charts a journey through her own mind, and those of others. While pursuing her career in medicine, she was affected by the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic lows that afflicted many of her patients. Now, all of a sudden, my mind had turned on me: it mocked me for my vapid enthusiasms it laughed at all of my foolish plans it no longer found anything interesting or enjoyable or worthwhile.ĭr Kay Redfield Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic depression (bipolar disorder) – and has experienced its terrors and cruel allure first-hand. I was used to my mind being my best friend.
'It stands alone in the literature of manic depression for its bravery, brilliance and beauty.' – Oliver Sacks With an introduction by Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology and culture. A classic memoir of enormous candour and courage, it teems with the wit and wisdom of its writer, Dr Kay Redfield Jamison. An Unquiet Mind is a definitive examination of manic depression from both sides: doctor and patient, the healer and the healed.
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