An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison (1996)

This was overrated. I learned very little about what it's like to actually have manic-depression; Dr. Jamison preferred to write about her love life and her visits to England. She glossed over her suicide attempt and the only description of hospitalization is that of one of her patients. Also, the memoir skips back and forth in time and it's irritating. There are better books out there. ( )

Interesting to see how she dealt/deals with this disorder. But it's not as easy as that for many. This disease runs in my family. It's a struggle for all involved and all have to be strong. But , never the less a good insight into bi-polar. ( )

This is an extremely well written memoir of a person who suffers from bipolar disorder. Not just a person, but a professor of psychiatry.

Jamison is an amazing person in many ways, and that is perhaps the books most glaring weakness. Most people who suffer from bipolar disorder don't have her intellect, talents or resources.

Still this is a good book to help someone understand the basic ins and outs of bipolar disorder. I recommend to spouses of people recently diagnosed as bipolar. It gives them some understanding, but also some hope that they can have something of a normal life (whatever THAT is.)

Even if you are not interested in mental health, the book is entertaining and extremely well written. ( )

I was very disappointed by this book. I hoped to gain new insight into what it's like for someone with bipolar disorder, but this book didn't tell me anything I didn't already know just from researching on the Internet and being around the mental health community. Plus, it was almost too happy of a story -- "I had a lot of bad symptoms, but let me gloss over them, 'cause I took a pill, and hey, first pill I tried made me all better!" Maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit, but seriously, it seemed so easy for her, just take one pill and it all becomes much better and totally manageable. I know for a fact that for a lot of people with bipolar disorder (and any other mental illness, in fact), it's not that simple -- it takes a lot of tinkering, trying one pill after another, first this combination of medications, then that one, dosage up, dosage down, awful side effects, hey, let's try this one now instead, and you still might not be much better. By not mentioning that fact in her book, the author grossly oversimplifies the treatment of mental illnesses and how difficult of a process it can be. ( )