Books › An unquiet mind
An unquiet mind
First published 1995 · 240 pages
A fiercely articulate descent into the terrifying highs and crushing lows of a brilliant, fractured mind.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like riding out a violent storm with a brilliant, fiercely honest guide. The narrative moves at a steady, reflective pace, yet the emotional texture is deeply turbulent, mirroring the intoxicating highs and devastating lows of the illness it describes. The prose is a remarkable balancing act, lyrical and deeply poetic, yet anchored by the sharp, clinical precision of a world-class medical authority. You are pulled into an intensely introspective atmosphere that is at times harrowing, yet ultimately illuminated by a profound sense of hope and survival. It will deeply resonate with readers who seek elegant, unvarnished truths about the fragility of the human mind, the stigma of mental illness, and the arduous journey toward healing.
- Mood
- turbulent
- introspective
- harrowing
- hopeful
- Tone
- candid
- lyrical
- authoritative
- vulnerable
- earnest
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- duality of madness and brilliance · stigma and secrecy · fragility of the mind · professional versus personal identity · necessity of treatment
- The writing
- Lyrical and precise, seamlessly blending the clinical authority of a medical professional with the poetic vulnerability of a patient.
- The arc
- Moves from the intoxicating, terrifying chaos of unmedicated mania and despair toward a hard-won, grounded acceptance of a treated life.
- Who it's for
- Readers fascinated by psychology and the human mind who appreciate fierce honesty and elegant prose.
Content notes
- suicidal ideation
- severe depression
- mania
- psychiatric hospitalization
About the book
From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life.
Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating and dangerous territory of this form of madness - a world in which one pole can be the alluring dark land ruled by what Byron called the "melancholy star of the imagination," and the other a desert of depression and, all too frequently, death.
A moving and exhilarating memoir by a woman whose furious determination to learn the enemy, to use her gifts of intellect to make a difference, led her to become, by the time she was forty, a world authority on manic-depression, and whose work has helped save countless lives.
Description from Open Library.
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