Kay Redfield Jamison
Author of An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
About the Author
Clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison was born on June 22, 1946. She received a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is considered one of the foremost experts on bipolar disorder, which she has had since her early adulthood. She is Professor of Psychiatry show more at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of numerous books including An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness; Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide; and Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Richard Wyatt
Works by Kay Redfield Jamison
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993) 1,373 copies, 9 reviews
Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character (2017) 160 copies, 2 reviews
Associated Works
This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women (2006) — Contributor — 1,146 copies, 36 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Redfield Jamison, Kay
- Birthdate
- 1946-06-22
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Occupations
- clinical psychologist
professor
autobiographer
producer
screenwriter - Organizations
- University of California, Los Angeles
Johns Hopkins University
National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research - Awards and honors
- MacArthur Fellowship (2001)
- Short biography
- In addition to her academic works, Prof. Jamison chronicled her own struggle with bipolar disorder (severe mania and depression) in her 1995 memoir An Unquiet Mind.
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the co-author of the definitive medical text Manic-Depressive Illness. Dr. Jamison is a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. She is also the executive producer and writer for a series of award-winning public television specials about manic-depressive illness and the arts. [from Touched with Fire (1993)] - Nationality
- USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Years ago my mother took me to a series of talks at The U of Penn -- about depression and connected maladies. I heard Bill Styron talk about his terrifying bout with depression (about which he wrote in Darkness Visible) and also Kay Redfield Jamison whose book, An Unquiet Mind had just recently come out. Previous to this, Jamison, a clinical psychologist, had kept her own bipolar illness to herself and where necessary, friends and colleagues. (She prefers the term manic-depressive as more show more accurately descriptive.) The thumbnail takeaways are 1) If you are bipolar and lithium works for you, TAKE IT faithfully. 2) ALSO don't neglect to have a good therapist and psychiatrist who know your story 3) forgive yourself for the bad times and move on. 4) be open to loving and being loved. Jamison explores one of the key bipolar dilemmas--a terrifying number of those who have been diagnosed, who have had horrendous and repeated episodes of mania and depression, refuse to take lithium or quit, again and again once they feel better. The reasons are mainly cultural and she explores those. She also describes the allure and the terror of mania and the combined terror and utter tedium of depression, the former (the allure part) of which also made taking lithium regularly difficult to bear. We all know people who are bipolar, as it is surprisingly common, still kept hidden by individuals and families more afraid of the disruption of others knowing than of the private suffering, and so very very much the hidden cause behind many suicides and destroyed relationships. Jamison has devoted herself to bringing this topic into the open and to taking the cultural onus from being a sufferer down a few pegs. With time and experience too, she has been able to reduce her dose of lithium to one where her mind works more quickly, although she has had to work at staying on an even keel. (This took decades and dedication.)
Brava! ***** show less
Brava! ***** show less
'Which of my feelings are real? Which of me is me? The wild, impulsive, chaotic, energetic, and crazy one? Or the shy, withdrawn, desperate, suicidal, doomed, and tired one? Probably a bit of both, hopefully much that is neither.'
There is no way to make people not battling through it themselves understand how it actually feels to experience a mental illness. One can barely make them grasp it, maybe have them to get sympathy and a vague sense of grip; but telling of how it really feels, with show more all its subjectivity, is a nearly impossible feat, especially since such experiences will be different even between affected individuals. Yet, Kay Redfield Jamison manages to nearly achieve just that in exposing here all the fire of manic-depressive illness (she rejects the now widely used term 'bipolar'), 'a disease that both kills and gives life' -from its flying and intoxicating highs to its crushing and absolutely frightening lows, and the painful consequences coming with both.
There are a few books out there telling of first hand experiences of mental illnesses and depression. 'An Unquiet Mind', though, still stands out not least because the author is also a clinician specialist of the topic. Her ability to detach herself from what she is going through while battling her own demons is striking. The insights it provides her and, consequently, the readers are thus remarkable.
Indeed, it's the strange interplay between being a doctor and a patient, as well as the author's own human contradictions, that are here puzzling and touching. She not only tells of her wild dance with mania and depression (so bad she once tried to kill herself). She also opens up about the difficult issue of taking medication, the damages caused on relationships and, being genetic, the effect the disorder has had from her childhood (her dad was a likely sufferer too) to herself thinking of being a mother.
Here's an account which is as personal as it is insightful, but always moving and relevant. It can be grim. It can be funny. It can be hopeful. It is, above all, brave, emotional and, at the image of the illness it depicts, an intense read.
Highly recommended to anyone having an interest in manic-depressive/ bipolar disorder. show less
There is no way to make people not battling through it themselves understand how it actually feels to experience a mental illness. One can barely make them grasp it, maybe have them to get sympathy and a vague sense of grip; but telling of how it really feels, with show more all its subjectivity, is a nearly impossible feat, especially since such experiences will be different even between affected individuals. Yet, Kay Redfield Jamison manages to nearly achieve just that in exposing here all the fire of manic-depressive illness (she rejects the now widely used term 'bipolar'), 'a disease that both kills and gives life' -from its flying and intoxicating highs to its crushing and absolutely frightening lows, and the painful consequences coming with both.
There are a few books out there telling of first hand experiences of mental illnesses and depression. 'An Unquiet Mind', though, still stands out not least because the author is also a clinician specialist of the topic. Her ability to detach herself from what she is going through while battling her own demons is striking. The insights it provides her and, consequently, the readers are thus remarkable.
Indeed, it's the strange interplay between being a doctor and a patient, as well as the author's own human contradictions, that are here puzzling and touching. She not only tells of her wild dance with mania and depression (so bad she once tried to kill herself). She also opens up about the difficult issue of taking medication, the damages caused on relationships and, being genetic, the effect the disorder has had from her childhood (her dad was a likely sufferer too) to herself thinking of being a mother.
Here's an account which is as personal as it is insightful, but always moving and relevant. It can be grim. It can be funny. It can be hopeful. It is, above all, brave, emotional and, at the image of the illness it depicts, an intense read.
Highly recommended to anyone having an interest in manic-depressive/ bipolar disorder. show less
'The basic argument of this book is not that all writers and artists are depressed, suicidal, or manic. It is, rather, that a greatly disproportionate number of them are; that the manic-depressive and artistic temperaments are, in many ways, overlapping ones; and, that the two temperaments are causally related to one another.'
'Touched with Fire' is a passionate discussion of what is creativity, and how it can be served by the cognitive processes and moods involved in depression and manic/ show more hypomanic episodes. I personally love it, not least because I believe Kay Redfield Jamison (renown clinical psychologist and herself a manic-depressive, author of the bestseller 'An Unquiet Mind') has a strong point.
First, focusing on high profiles personalities (e.g. whole chapter or vignettes are dedicated to Byron, Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Robert Schumann...) I like her holistic approach, away from so many ridicule psychobiographies unfortunately so common with such topic. Indeed, she doesn't focus only on the lives of the artists discussed; she, because bipolar is a genetic illness, support her arguments by looking also at their family backgrounds. Depression, suicide, substance abuse, violence... It's all very telling. Then, because perfectly aware of the scepticism her claim might raise, she dedicates a whole chapter exposing, and then counter-arguing, potential criticisms in sharp and punchy insights, relying on wide researches despite limited data. I, for one, was in any case convinced. She even goes further than that, touching on ethical issues by questioning the impact of treating - if not eliminating -such disease in a last chapter that leaves thoughtful to say the least:
'If manic-depressive illness and its associated temperaments are relatively common in artists, writers, and composers, and if the illness is, at least to some extent, an important part of what makes their work what it is, what are the implications of treating the underlying disease and its temperaments?'
Now, it doesn't mean it's all very strongly convincing. Since depression and mania/ hypomania are cyclic patterns often linked to seasons, she tries and attempts to argue that, some artists had indeed creative periods more prolific than others matching those cyclic patterns. Was she here carried away by her own argumentation, or is there really a connection I personally find too good to be true? I struggled to follow her on that score, and so will leave it here.
Nevertheless, I was strongly convinced by her claim that there clearly is a link between manic-depressive illness and creativity. The turmoil coming with the exhilarating highs and frightening and crushing lows of such 'fine madness' makes, in itself, for such emotional experience that if harnessed by artistic tendencies it no doubt can be the source of uncommon and wonderful art. The high rate of artists having suffered such fate is, alone, a testimony to it! Making science dance with art - understanding a mental illness and the creative process - here's a book which is as enthralling as it is riveting.
A great read. show less
'Touched with Fire' is a passionate discussion of what is creativity, and how it can be served by the cognitive processes and moods involved in depression and manic/ show more hypomanic episodes. I personally love it, not least because I believe Kay Redfield Jamison (renown clinical psychologist and herself a manic-depressive, author of the bestseller 'An Unquiet Mind') has a strong point.
First, focusing on high profiles personalities (e.g. whole chapter or vignettes are dedicated to Byron, Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Robert Schumann...) I like her holistic approach, away from so many ridicule psychobiographies unfortunately so common with such topic. Indeed, she doesn't focus only on the lives of the artists discussed; she, because bipolar is a genetic illness, support her arguments by looking also at their family backgrounds. Depression, suicide, substance abuse, violence... It's all very telling. Then, because perfectly aware of the scepticism her claim might raise, she dedicates a whole chapter exposing, and then counter-arguing, potential criticisms in sharp and punchy insights, relying on wide researches despite limited data. I, for one, was in any case convinced. She even goes further than that, touching on ethical issues by questioning the impact of treating - if not eliminating -such disease in a last chapter that leaves thoughtful to say the least:
'If manic-depressive illness and its associated temperaments are relatively common in artists, writers, and composers, and if the illness is, at least to some extent, an important part of what makes their work what it is, what are the implications of treating the underlying disease and its temperaments?'
Now, it doesn't mean it's all very strongly convincing. Since depression and mania/ hypomania are cyclic patterns often linked to seasons, she tries and attempts to argue that, some artists had indeed creative periods more prolific than others matching those cyclic patterns. Was she here carried away by her own argumentation, or is there really a connection I personally find too good to be true? I struggled to follow her on that score, and so will leave it here.
Nevertheless, I was strongly convinced by her claim that there clearly is a link between manic-depressive illness and creativity. The turmoil coming with the exhilarating highs and frightening and crushing lows of such 'fine madness' makes, in itself, for such emotional experience that if harnessed by artistic tendencies it no doubt can be the source of uncommon and wonderful art. The high rate of artists having suffered such fate is, alone, a testimony to it! Making science dance with art - understanding a mental illness and the creative process - here's a book which is as enthralling as it is riveting.
A great read. show less
Kay Redfield Jamison is a well-known psychotherapist at Johns Hopkins who herself famously suffers from bipolar disorder. In 1996, she wrote eloquently about her journey in An Unquiet Mind. In this book, she posits the idea that to be most effective, healers – the doctors, counselors, and leaders – need to be healed themselves. To support her argument, she provides life narratives of many such eminent people, with a focus on the early-to-mid twentieth century.
Jamison uses historical show more stories to illustrate that many of the best healers are sufferers, too. She explores the phenomenon known as “shell shock” in World War I. At the time, soldiers experiencing this were sent away from the front to heal. Strangely, those who are healed were immediately sent back to the front to fight and often die. At the time, physicians and nurses saw this inherent contradiction in their work. Their task from the military enabled more dreary death.
Many of these discursions serve as meditations, almost like short homilies in a memorial service. They are not overtly directional but instead meander, much like a psychotherapeutic encounter. The psychiatrist WHR Rivers plays a leading role in this discourse, and other well-known topics include Paul Robeson, Notre Dame Cathedral, Siegfried Sassoon, ancient Greek medicine, and William Osler. In the epilogue, Jamison says that she started out to write a book about healing, but she ended up writing a book about healers.
This work will disappoint readers who like a structured, orderly writing style that engages contemporary debates. It’s well-researched and interesting, but it’s neither controversial nor trending. It’s more about circumspectly peering into others’ private lives to find how they find healing. Her thesis that those healed make the best healers is echoed throughout the centuries, but is strangely forgotten in modern medical training, with all its focus on objectivity and evidence. In practice, healing remains as much of an art as a science, particularly in fields like psychiatry and psychotherapy. Jamison, a provider and receiver of life-healing aid, reminds us of this thematic strand in history. I think her contribution here contains an idea that deserves to be heard and reflected upon. show less
Jamison uses historical show more stories to illustrate that many of the best healers are sufferers, too. She explores the phenomenon known as “shell shock” in World War I. At the time, soldiers experiencing this were sent away from the front to heal. Strangely, those who are healed were immediately sent back to the front to fight and often die. At the time, physicians and nurses saw this inherent contradiction in their work. Their task from the military enabled more dreary death.
Many of these discursions serve as meditations, almost like short homilies in a memorial service. They are not overtly directional but instead meander, much like a psychotherapeutic encounter. The psychiatrist WHR Rivers plays a leading role in this discourse, and other well-known topics include Paul Robeson, Notre Dame Cathedral, Siegfried Sassoon, ancient Greek medicine, and William Osler. In the epilogue, Jamison says that she started out to write a book about healing, but she ended up writing a book about healers.
This work will disappoint readers who like a structured, orderly writing style that engages contemporary debates. It’s well-researched and interesting, but it’s neither controversial nor trending. It’s more about circumspectly peering into others’ private lives to find how they find healing. Her thesis that those healed make the best healers is echoed throughout the centuries, but is strangely forgotten in modern medical training, with all its focus on objectivity and evidence. In practice, healing remains as much of an art as a science, particularly in fields like psychiatry and psychotherapy. Jamison, a provider and receiver of life-healing aid, reminds us of this thematic strand in history. I think her contribution here contains an idea that deserves to be heard and reflected upon. show less
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