Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

An Unquiet Mind

Front Cover
129 Reviews
Vintage Books, 1996 - Self-Help - 240 pages
As a founder of UCLA's Affective Disorder Clinic and a co-author of a standard medical text, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison may be the foremost authority on manic-depressive illness. She is also one of its survivors. And it is this dual perspective -- as healer and healed -- that makes Jamison's memoir so lucid, learned, and profoundly affecting.
Even as she was pursuing her psychiatric training, Jamison found herself succumbing to the exhilarating highs and paralyzing lows that afflicted many of her patients. Though the disorder brought her seemingly boundless energy and mercurial creativity, it also propelled her into spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempt at suicide.
Powerfully candid, exceptionally wise, An Unquiet Mind is one of those rare books that has the power to transform lives -- and even save them.

What people are saying - Write a review

User ratings

5 stars
30
4 stars
23
3 stars
27
2 stars
28
1 star
21

Again, the writing is incredible. - Goodreads
It's short, and her prose is eminently readable. - Goodreads
What insight she would share I thought. - Goodreads
Mainly I found the prose to be over the top. - Goodreads
My advice is not to compare. - Goodreads
For insights to bipolarism, this is the book. - Goodreads

Review: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

User Review  - Nicole Fraser - Goodreads

This memoir was published in 1995, and the fact that Dr. Jamison's content has stood the test of nearly 20 years' time is a testament to its integrity and quality. I especially appreciate two parts ... Read full review

Review: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

User Review  - Sarah - Goodreads

(I summarize this book along with another. I don't think the story line had any big surprises that would be spoiled though) I read this book immediately after finishing The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn ... Read full review

All 113 reviews »

Related books

Other editions - View all

About the author (1996)

Kay Redfield Jamison is the Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders and Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is codirector of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center and a member of the governing board of the National Network of Depression Centers. She is also Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the author of the national bestsellers An Unquiet Mind and Night Falls Fast, as well as Touched with Fire, Exuberance, and Nothing Was the Same. Dr. Jamison is the coauthor of the standard medical text on bipolar illness, Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, and the recipient of numerous national and international literary and scientific honors, including a MacArthur Award. In 2010 she married Thomas Traill, a cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Bibliographic information