An Unquiet Mind, Jamison, Kay Redfield. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. (Hardback, 224 pages, $22.00)

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, author of Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, coauthor of the definitive medical text Manic-Depressive Illness, and writer and producer of public television specials on creativity and manic-depressive illness, has revolutionized the public's perception of the illness. And now, in An Unquiet Mind, Dr. Jamison has written probably the best book yet about manic depression and the mind—because the "unquiet mind" was her own.

In this memoir, Dr. Jamison reveals that she has had manic depression, a "horrible disease," for over 30 years. With honesty and wit, she traces the flight of her "loopy but intense life: marvelous, ghastly, indescribably difficult, gloriously and unexpectedly easy, complicated . . . and a no-exit nightmare."

She experienced mood disruptions as a child; as a teenager she became very depressed. In her twenties, the illness worsened—she found herself "unpredictably and uncontrollably irrational and destructive." Once she was diagnosed as manic depressive, she (like many other patients) began her "war" against medication. Against professional advice, she went off her medication and eventually attempted suicide. At that moment, she "could not stand the pain any longer," and believed she "could no longer be responsible for the turmoil [she] was inflicting on friends and family."

An Unquiet Mind is the story of Kay Redfield Jamison's journey to and from this "almost arterial level of agony." It is also the story of the importance of family and professional support; the theme is love "as sustainer, as renewer, and as protector." Dr. Jamison acknowledges that the only thing that protected her from "each terrible storm that came her way" was her mother's "love and strong sense of values," providing "powerful and sustaining, countervailing winds." Her brother, too, was devoted: despite Dr. Jamison's "mood or problem," he was always glad to see her. "He made it unequivocally clear that if I needed him, no matter where he was, he would be on the next plane home." She also maintains that the "debt" she owes her psychiatrist is "beyond description." He sustained her "with a granite belief" that hers was "a life worth living" and that "with steely effort, the grace of God, and an inevitable break in the weather," she could make it.

Woven through Dr. Jamison's story are informative discussions about the course of the illness. She uses her own thoughts and behaviors to illustrate the classic symptoms of manic depression. She also advocates a partnership between medication and psychotherapy. As both a patient and a mental health professional, she explains that "lithium [or other medication] moderates the illness, but therapy teaches you to live with it."

The beauty of the book lies as much in Dr. Jamison's style as it does in the story. Her language is powerful and her images are riveting—for example, depression was "flat, hollow, unendurable," and even now, her old "summer manias . . . coalesce, each July, into brief, occasionally dangerous cracklings of black moods and high passions." Yet because of her illness, she has found "new corners" in her "mind and heart . . . limitless corners, with their limitless views."

We—patients, family members, friends, and other readers—owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison for letting us peek into these "corners" and share their "views." Like all visionaries, she was lonely with her secret; for sharing the truth, she has earned our admiration and respect.

by Connie Pryor
Smooth Sailing: Fall 1995

Click here to order the book, An Unquiet Mind, by Jamison, Kay Redfield

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