An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Reading Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is both terrifying and strangely affirming. As someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder, much of what she describes feels both comfortably and uncomfortably familiar. There is a particular kind of recognition that happens when you read a sentence and realize: someone else has lived this exact storm. While my own bipolar episodes—both manic and depressive—have been milder compared to Dr. Jamison’s, her memoir is a powerful reminder that this illness demands vigilance. Mania can feel seductive; depression can feel endless. The book reinforces for me the importance of discipline, self-awareness, and consistent treatment so that I do not fall into the depths where moods spiral beyond control. What makes this memoir extraordinary is not just the honesty, but the authority with which she writes. Dr. Jamison is both a patient and a clinician. That dual perspective gives the book a rare credibility—intellectually rigorous yet emotionally raw. She does not romanticize mania, nor does she dramatize suffering for effect. Instead, she presents bipolar disorder in all its complexity: the brilliance, the destructiveness, the fragility, and the resilience. Her account resonated deeply with my own history. I have lived through episodes of hypomania that felt expansive and productive, followed by periods of depression that narrowed the world into something painfully small. I have survived five suicide attempts in the past—moments that now feel distant yet still part of my story. Reading her reflections on despair, treatment, and recovery reminded me that survival itself is a form of quiet courage. Perhaps what moved me most is that An Unquiet Mind does not offer simplistic hope. It offers something more mature: the possibility of stability, meaning, and a full intellectual life even with a chronic illness. Dr. Jamison demonstrates that one can be brilliant, accomplished, and deeply human while living with bipolar disorder. That is not romanticization—it is testimony. This is not an easy book to read, especially if you see yourself in its pages. But it is an important one. It is clinical without being cold, intimate without being indulgent, and hopeful without being naive. For anyone living with bipolar disorder—or loving someone who is—this memoir is both a mirror and a lifeline.

It gives a true and unhidden view into the mind of a person not only struggling with bipolar but living with it as well. Kay Jamison is truly an icon of not only living with bipolar but also striving for success through her life, works, novels and studies. I was very moved by not only her information, but how she portrays her information and writing in her novel it is almost as if you can feel here highs and lows through her writing. I can't wait to read her other books notably Touched with Fire as well as Night Falls Fast.

Recommended by a therapist. I enjoyed the book, but it somehow left me "disappointed". Agree with others that she could have written more about actually living with the disorder, and how difficult it can be. I would also like a layman's description of the mechanism of action of lithium, at least as believed at that time. I guess it made me feel more confident about people dx with bp exposing themselves, for the greater good of the community. It didn't make me confident to put that on any school applications though. Her environment was perfect. Perfect access to mental health care, competent psychiatrists, that are generally inadequately available to the general public. Her side effects of vomiting, etc.... that might be worse for people with BP type 2 than the actual disorder itself? She can't say though because she had very severe BP type 1. She went way overboard with the descriptiveness. I guess she was trying to make a metaphor of mania/depression though. I agree that this may be more useful to family members. I really liked this review: "I'm still not quite sure what I think of this book. It was recommended to me by a therapist thinking I would be interested as someone with bipolar disorder. Due to the source of the suggestion and the author of the book, an expert on and individual with bipolar disorder, I expected some practical insight into living with this disease. What I found was much different. This book is labeled a memoir, and the writing style and content certainly fit the label. Unfortunately, the author seemed to try too hard, and quite unsuccessfully, to become a writer of creative non-fiction. This frustrated me extremely and made it difficult to actually finish the book. Still, I tend to be unnecessarily harsh when it comes to writing skills. My inner lit snob simply won't shut up. What seriously complicates my opinion of this book, however, is whether the author intended to give hope to individuals with bipolar depression. As previously mentioned, I expected just that from this book based on its presentation to me. Instead, I found myself wanting the author to remember more clearly how difficult it sometimes is for a person with bipolar disorder to see a way out. I found myself highly skeptical of the author's management of the illness considering her unlimited access to psychiatric treatment and information from experts. I think this book may be more useful to friends and family of people with bipolar disorder than those trying to dig their way out from mania or depression. I guess I like what this book tries to do, but I'm not convinced it was well done."

I had never known someone with serious mental illness until recently. I was led to this book when a dearly beloved young woman who is very intelligent, creative, vivacious and warm suddenly (at least as far as we knew) experienced the dark side of being bipolar. It has been sad, frightening, enlightening, and hopeful – she now seems to be comfortable and in control of her life. In the last few months, when I have occasionally happened to mention our concern to friends, I have discovered that several people could understand far more than I would have expected since they too had been through this – were going through it because the battle is never completely won – and could offer valuable understanding, advice, and hope, and the warning that the medication must never, ever stop, no matter how tempting that is or how little at any time it seems to be needed. Over and over. I’ve never met a psychiatrist except one whose house I sold. But the experiences of this exceptional psychiatrist who writes so movingly of her experiences of mania and depression help me understand and feel even more concern and sympathy for a young woman whom I love deeply who is learning to cope with being bipolar. Like Jamison, and the people I know who have some kind of mental illness, she is exceptionally smart, creative, enthusiastic, and the various manifestations of her disease are alternately frightening, frustrating, painful and hopeful for those who love her and would do anything to help her stay within the range of emotions that she can control and that enable her to balance her life. Just as the pediatrician whose child has Downs syndrome, the radiologist whose wife has breast cancer, the psychiatrist who is bipolar is in a unique position to understand and treat others who face what she has faced, fought and come to grips with. This book is memorable and I strongly recommend it on several counts. People who are bipolar, people who want to help them, medical professionals, and anyone needs to re-evaluate their perceptions about mental illness so that the stigmas can be outweighed by compassion and understanding that with appropriate treatment and if necessary supervision, people can cope and have productive lives, and even make enormous contributions. Dr. Jamison makes a valuable contribution to understanding in this book and It’s one of those I will buy in multiple copies to share

This book is on many lists of "books about bipolar to read" and I figured I would see why that is. I feel I have said this a lot lately, but non-fiction is not my go-to reading material though I am glad I stepped out of my norms for this. As someone who was diagnosed with Bipolar II but am uncertain if that diagnosis is accurate (maybe it's Bipolar I, it's hard to tell) and who has been dealing with a lot of brain bullying in recent weeks, this is a book that I think I needed to read. Hearing someone else describe their struggles with bipolar helps me see that others who were dealt similar cards in life are at least making it to the next round in the game of life and that I can to. The question of "what could I possibly have done to deserve this" still floats in my mind because, as I said earlier, my brain is a bully, but it's good to hear that I'm not alone. Like the author, I too wonder from time to time if I would remove this condition if I could, and while I do and have struggled to feel anything approaching normal, bipolar is part of who I am. Given 3 wishes from a genie, I would not wish this away. If you know someone with bipolar and want to understand more about what may be going on internally, this book is worth the read. If you have bipolar, I would also recommend this book to you if only to hear of the struggles and victories of someone else.

Three stars are almost as low as I will go, because if I don't like it any better than that, I probably won't finish a book. The main things I got out of this book were: Stay on your meds; take your lithium; don't forget your meds. I think I already knew this, even though I'm not bipolar. I do have a family member who is, however - and has been for over 35 years now. For twenty years now, there have been no meds taken, but there should have been, because this person is not easy to live with or to even like. I already knew about lithium and other antidepressants before I read this book. What I really wanted from this book was to read a good memoir of what it's like to be bipolar. Instead I got this very carefully worded treatise full of sweeping generalizations like, "My mercurial moods and recurrent, very black depressions took a huge personal and academic toll during those college years." Jamison makes no effort to give any specific examples of either the moods, depressions or the toll taken. Just that broad sweeping statement. (And if it took such a "huge academic toll," how the hell did she end up with a Ph.D.?) She talks about how her marriage was falling apart, but gives no real details. Indeed we know almost nothing about her first husband or that marriage. She talks in only the very vaguest of terms about patients, colleagues and even family. While I recognize that Jamison may have been concerned about things like confidentiality, privacy, and fear of revealing too much of her own private life, that just doesn't cut it. She holds back on everything. The book read, very frustratingly for me, like a bad freshman theme: filled with sweeping generalities, but no specifics to back these up. She will tell you of "unforgettable images of violence, utter madness, mortifying behavior, and moods savage to exexperience, and even more disturbingly brutal in their effects on others." But then she never follows through with examples, from her own experience, of those images, behavior or moods. I'm sorry, but this hardly qualifies as a memoir, and certainly not a very interesting one. While I do feel somewhat sorry for what Jamison says has been a tormented, terrible life, she has gone to very few pains to make that life real to any reader. Indeed it seems quite the opposite. She keeps more from us than she reveals. I wonder if perhaps many of the reviewers here who gave the book five stars and started out by saying, "I'm bipolar," were simply mentally superimposing their own horrendous experiences onto Jamison's narrative every time she wrote one of her generalizations. Sorry, but this is a poor excuse for a memoir. Maybe I should have given it two stars. - Tim Bazzett, author of Love, War & Polio

I am so happy my colleague recommended this book. It was deeply personal and educated me a lot on Bipolar Disorder and the way lithium helps treat the illness.

As someone who knows what depression is, I recently began reading a few autobiographies of persons who have coped with depression. I previously read and was highly impressed by Kay Jamison's book Night Falls Fast-Understanding Suicide, and looked forward with high hopes to this one. In reading the reviews prior to purchase, I was intrigued by the "rich girl" descriptions of the author; ready to compare her childhood and life to my own, it turned out to be quite the contrast with little to bridge the gap. Unable to relate to her on that level, I was still able to absorb and appreciate the facts given concerning her bipolar illness. Besides a look at bipolar, this book describes quite a privileged life. Besides social status, Jamison was fortunate to have had a life in a far more functional family of origin and social circle than have many. As a clinical therapist, she is surely aware of this. As she tells it, it seems that her amazing good fortune never failed, as she continually found a reliable supply of social and professional support. Her notable career advancement for someone with the misfortune of having so serious a mental illness seems remarkable. Not being able to study, read, work or do anything for long stretches; having considerable free time; not attending class; failing college courses; not to mention severe mood swings and refusing to take her medication ... yet through it all, not only holding her own in prestigious universities but also obtaining assistantships, internships, grants, and advanced degrees, being accepted to the faculty, and eventually attaining tenure. Surely she had rejections and setbacks, personal and professional, yet she doesn't detail these things. Recounting the obstacles she surely had may have made her more of a multi-dimensional and interesting, relatable human being. After all, the book is selling the person, as this is an important part of her life story. The only women mentioned in the book are the author's mother, who sounds wonderful, and her sister, with whom the author does not get along. I wonder if the author has put any reflection at all into her relationship with members of her own gender and if so why she neglected to mention it in this book. The personal aside -- this book is a credible recounting of bipolar disorder, recommended as a resource for learning about the illness.

Ich konnte das Buch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen, obwohl es in englischer Sprache geschrieben ist. Die Autorin verwendet viele Adjektive, um alle Umstände treffend zu beschreiben und obwohl ich nicht jedes einzelne Wort versehen konnte, habe ich den Sinn verstanden. Es ist also gut zu lesen für jemanden, der einige Jahre Englisch in der Schule hatte. Inhaltlich beschreibt es die Ungeschützheit dieser Erkrankung. Man hat keine Wahl und stürzt in immer neue Höhen und Tiefen. Sehr ehrlich und mutig. Sehr zu empfehlen!

Para quem tem qualquer doença psiquiátrica (ou é próximo de alguém que tenha) é, sem dúvida, um livro imprescindível. Seja depressão, transtorno bipolar ou qualquer outro, porque a autora descreve de uma maneira que eu mesma não conseguiria muitas das minhas próprias vivências. Muito humano.

stunning peice of work

Thank you Kay Redfield Jamison for having taken the time and energy to expose us a life full of difficulties not only because bipolar disorder is an extremely difficult and exhausting medical condition to cope with, but also to share how the cognitive bias from all of us in front of such a common condition makes life painful and dangerous. This work contributes to make us more caring about bipolar disorder conditions.

This book touched my heart. As a fellow manic depressive sufferer I could identify with the experiences of the writer. It is remarkable about how similiar our experiences are. Kay writes from the heart and this is very captivating. She excellently describes how manic depression devastatingly affected her life and yet she strives to beat it. It gives me confidence that I too can beat this disease. I will certainly reccommend this book to my family and friends.