An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: 1
- Author: Kay Redfield Jamison
- Publisher: Vintage
- Release Date: October 1996
- ISBN-10: 0679763309
- ISBN-13: 9780679763307
- List Price: $14.95
Price Comparisons
E-mail these Cheap Book Prices to a friend!
| Store | Price | Condition | Free Shipping? | Online Coupons and Deals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibris | $1.99 as of 11/21 5pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $2.88 as of 11/21 5pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $6.50 as of 11/21 5pm EST | New | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $10.17 as of 11/21 5pm EST | New | YES, spend $25+ |
| |||
| TextbookX | $10.76 as of 11/21 5pm EST | New | YES, spend $49+ |
| |||
| button not working? Click Here | |||||||
Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryIn 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 |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Good Book for Those Unfamiliar with Bipolar Disorder
Rating: 
This is an interesting book about the experiences of someone with bipolar disorder. Having been touched by it in my personal life, I was eager to understand how the treatment of the disorder affects the person afflicted with it. This book provides a window into the mind of someone going through the trauma of bipolar disorder. I would commend it to anyone who knows or is him/herself suffering from the disorder.
A remarkable memoir by a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins discussing her own battles with Manic-Depression
Rating:
I picked this book up wondering how a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins with a history of manic-depression managed to deal with the mental anguish and turmoil that such a disorder brings and -- not just, survive, but thrive -- to become a respected and noted authority on the subject! Amazing!
Dr. Jamison offers readers an honest, sincere memoir of her young academic years at UCLA and in Scotland where she was trying to figure out how to make it from one day to the next amid the emotional highs and dark, suicidal lows brought on by her illness. She candidly discusses the feelings that often lead such individuals to over-spend, go without sleep, engage in risky personal relationships and not want to or easily adjust to taking Lithium. She then goes on to describe her middle-age professional years at UCLA, a year-long sabbatical in London and at Oxford, and how she managed the difficult balancing act of surviving her personal life while balancing research, publication and teaching during the day. She describes the difficulty she faced over-and-again, in admitting her medical condition to the men she dated and loved and the impact her illness had on these relationships and her medical peers at work.
This is an up-lifting, positive and hopeful book for those with a friend, spouse or family member suffering with this type of illness. Written in a warm, conversational style -- you can't help but say Bravo! when -- near the end -- where Dr. Jamison is once again informing a medical supervisor of her plight, she writes: [the doctor from Johns Hopkins] "reached across the table, put his hand on mine, and ...said, 'I KNOW you have a manic-depressive illness.' He paused, then laughed, 'If we got rid of all the manic-depressives on the medical school faculty, not only would we have a much smaller faculty, it would also be a far more boring one.'" Indeed.
Highly recommended for both public and college/university library collections.
R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University
firsthand witness and scientific point of view
Rating:
Kay Redfield Jamison witness for us the momentum of the manic depressive illness. She does it as a MD and as a young women trying to conceal is own life and the manic tantrums.
Perfectly written, she testify how the meds are working and how they must be adjusted the each outpatient. The telling of her trip to Scotland and Great Britain and the consequence of a part remission of the illness, is more useful than any other research works. You can't rely only on the meds even they are absolutely necessary. People with manic depressive illness have mind and feelings. They must work, with their parents, sibling and friends, on the surrounding life and find a way of living.The meds are the base, but the cognitive therapy, the way you look at the world, at your world, is the way to a almost real life. Kay Redfield Jamison has the strength to witness this for us and it is a very useful gift.
A must read for all persons with bipolar disorder and their families and friends.
Rating:
An Unquiet Mind is an amazing book about bipolar disorder. The author shares her personal experiences while including accurate medical information about bipolar disorder. It is a book that can be read in one day.
highly informative and compasionate
Rating:
[[ASIN:0679763309 An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Redfield Jamison is a psychiatrist who writes compassionately about her own experiences as a person with mania and mood disorders but also approaches it from the perspective of a scientist discovering what causes these disorders and how to treat them. Always compassionate and never boring. A must read for anybody who has problems in this realm her or himself or who has a close friend or family member with it. This book will make you understand why there is such a stigma surrounding this illness and why it is so difficult to be treated and for people who suffer from it to even admit to struggling with it. Highly informative reading.
BROWSE BY SUBJECT
- Audiobooks
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Health, Mind & Body
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel