| View Larger Image | An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness | Paperbackby Kay Redfield Jamison (Author)
| List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $10.17 | | You Save: | $4.78 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Vintage | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 240 Pages | | Publication Date: | October 01, 1996 | | Sales Rank: | 3,895rd |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780679763307
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The personal memoir of a manic depressive and an authority on the subject describes the onset of the illness during her teenage years and her determined journey through the realm of available treatments. Reprint. 125,000 first printing. NYT. |
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 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 354 reviews)
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good insight by Shirly  4 Stars
November 25, 2009
Recently diagnosed bipolar, this was a good look into the world and life of someone who has managed the illness. I was able to understand a little more of what was happening to myself and gain some objectivity. Quick read.
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Unsuitable for those with Bipolar Disorder by S. Farre (San Francisco, CA USA)  3 Stars
November 23, 2009
When I was diagnosed with Bipolar, many of the closest people in my life recommended I read a book called An Inquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. My mother herself read the book that month and then even sent me a copy. It was unanimously agreed upon within my circle of friends and family that this memoir would be helpful to me. So I read it.
What followed was very unexpected and perhaps unusual: this book actually made me worse. Jamison's memoir didn't aid me, it put me into a severely depressed state; it didn't inform me further, it made me feel less able to cope with having Bipolar Disorder. From looking at reviews into this title, it seems as though my reaction was in the minority, but I thought I'd share a few of my opinions on it.
Looking back on this experience, I wonder why this happened. Much of my reaction I feel comes from the message behind the book. The two biggest lessons I learnt from Redfield, were that it is an incurable and to a certain extent uncontrollable disease, the only real answer being a life of medication. The book is almost painfully negative. Like the term "manic depressive", I take exception to her reclaiming of being "mad" and "madness" in general, which I find derogative and insulting in this day and age.
However, it wasn't all bad, and there were times where she made absolute sense and I could relate well to her experiences. There is a passage that I did relate to, describing the feeling of mania which ends in deep depression on p. 67.
In conclusion, I feel that this book is best read by people who are not themselves Bipolar, as a reference point to understand the condition. It's depiction of someone with Bipolar is accurate and interestingly written, and much of the research and information within the book is good.
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Good Book for Those Unfamiliar with Bipolar Disorder by Alexander D. Sunshine (Washington, DC) 4 Stars
November 02, 2009
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.
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A remarkable memoir by a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins discussing her own battles with Manic-Depression by R. Neil Scott (Murfreesboro, TN USA) 4 Stars
October 21, 2009
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
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firsthand witness and scientific point of view by pietro-di-tricesimo (charleville-mezieres, France)  5 Stars
October 05, 2009
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.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
by Kay Redfield Jamison (Author)
From the author of the New York Times bestseller, An Unquiet Mind, Touched with Fire is an authoritative look at the relationship between manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament. Psychiatrist Jamison advocates a restrained, humanistic approach to treatment that does not "cure" the disorder at the expense of artistic inspiration.
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| Nothing Was the Same
by Kay Redfield Jamison (Author)
From the internationally acclaimed author of An Unquiet Mind, an exquisite, haunting meditation on mortality, grief, and loss.
Perhaps no one but Kay Redfield Jamison—who combines the acute perceptions of a psychologist with a writerly elegance and passion—could bring such a delicate touch to the subject of losing a spouse to cancer. In direct, straightforward, and at times strikingly lyrical prose, Jamison looks back at her relationship with her husband, Richard Wyatt, a renowned...
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| Exuberance: The Passion for Life
by Kay Redfield Jamison (Author)
With the same grace and breadth of learning she brought to her studies of the mind’s pathologies, Kay Redfield Jamison examines one of its most exalted states: exuberance. This “abounding, ebullient, effervescent emotion” manifests itself everywhere from child’s play to scientific breakthrough and is crucially important to learning, risk-taking, social cohesiveness, and survival itself.
Exuberance: The Passion for Life introduces us to such notably irrepressible types as Teddy...
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| The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know
by David J. Miklowitz (Author)
Thanks to sharper diagnosis and better medicine, the future is brighter for people with bipolar disorder than in past generations. But if you or someone you love is struggling with the frantic highs and crushing lows of this illness, there are still many hurdles to surmount at home, at work, and in daily life.
*How can you learn to distinguish between the early warning signs of mood swings and the normal ups and downs of life?
*What medications are available, and what are their side...
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| Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
by Kay Redfield Jamison (Author)
From the author of the best-selling memoir An Unquiet Mind, comes the first major book in a quarter century on suicide, and its terrible pull on the young in particular. Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five.
An internationally acknowledged authority on depressive illnesses, Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at...
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