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Dec 16, 2009

stephanie rated it:

i was reading some reviews of the book written by people that disliked this.

i just want to say, that for a person suffering from mental illness, the fact that you know jamieson's full CV and her academic struggles is important. it's more of a - look, she was wildly successful, and dealing with this illness, and she finally came to terms with it, and now she's okay - and still wildly successful.

i also want to say how brave it was for her to write this under her own name. More...

0 comments like (35 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Belinda rated it:

Just ran across this review of "An Unquiet Mind" that I wrote a couple of years ago (January 2009). As I go back through blog posts, Twitter feeds, book reviews, etc., it amazes me how difficult a time *I* was having... and how I was paying NO attention to that whatsoever. It was all about someone else. And really, in this book, that's how Jamison seems to think it should be.

I just had the opportunity to re-read this book when it was offered on the Kindle, and I was surp More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2008

Britta rated it:

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 see More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

May 28, 2009

Anoud rated it:

عقل غير هادئ هو عنوان لكتاب بالفعل "غير هادئ" و كاتبة غير هادئة !...

الدكتورة والاكاديمية المتخصصة في علم النفس –كاي جاميسون- تحكي في صفحات كتابها عن قصة صراعها مع ما يسمى بذهان الهوس الاكتئابي . ذلك المرض "العضوي" النفسي المؤدي الى حالات متفاوته ما بين اقصى موجات الهوس (الحماسة والنشاط المفرطة الناتجة عن خلل في الدماغ) و موجات قصوى تتبعها من الاكتئاب الشديد المؤدي عادة الى الانتحار . من خلال هذا التعريف البسيط للمرض ، قد يصبح من الممكن تصور الحالة او الحياة -ان صح More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2007

Tia rated it:

An autobiography of a brilliant woman who suffered from manic depression (she resists the more watered down label "bipolar" because she thinks it hides the essential nature of the disease.) She made it through a PhD in psychology and became one of the foremost authorities in her field before finally getting the consistent treatment she needed. Just seeing how she was able to achieve such professional success while privately dealing with such hellish, frightening moments of near insan More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2011

jo rated it:

just re-read this for class. maybe i'll post a a review later. for now, though, i raised my four-star rating to five. the ways in which KRJ thinks about mental illness are not always congenial with mine, but this is a brave, beautifully written, and still very powerful book, many such memoirs later.

REVIEW 3/12/11

i'm not going to research this, but i think this was one of the first candid memoirs of mental disorder coming from someone famous/mainstream in the US and publi More...

14 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Andy rated it:

Think of this book as an autobiography and you can't go wrong. Kay Redfield Jamison hardly needs an introduction here; her life and work stand for themselves. She literally 'wrote the book' on bipolar disorder with co-author Fred Goodwin, M.D. called, simply enough, "Manic-Depressive Illness."
So this book, "An Unquiet Mind," is not a clinical study of bipolar disorder. It is a deep and personal inside look at what it's like to live with manic depression from the unique More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Lisa rated it:

This was an outstanding read!!

I am a graduate school psych major and was first told about this book 8 years ago when I was a freshman undergrad. My "General Psychology" professor mentioned it to the 400 students in her lecture hall... and I happened to be paying attention. Shortly after I went and bought the book, well before I had even decided to become a psychologist. I am so glad that I listened to her and went to get this book! It has given me such a perspective int More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2011

rachel rated it:

So far... about half way done...

1 star for her vanity and pretension

5 stars because of the taxidermic fox

3 stars being a calculated average

**UPDATE**

Perhaps I have been corrupted by the reviews I read before finishing this book; however, I am still trying to wash Kay Redfield Jamison’s self-haughtiness out of my mind. I think that the first chapter and the last chapter are the only ones with any weight. Chapter one is about Jamis More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2008

Meaghan rated it:

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.

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2008

أروى rated it:

لا تستطيع أن تنأى بنفسك بعيداً عن نفسك وأنت تقرأ هذا الكتاب البديع..

تشعر لوهلة أنك ضعت في متاهات نفس إنسانية شديدة التعقيد..

الكاتبة طبيبة نفسية مشهورة ومريضة نفسية مصابة بذهان الهوس الإكتئابي وكاتبة ومولعة بكل فنون الأدب والموسيقى...

أي مزيج غريب سينشأ عن عقل كهذا، تتجول في متاهاته..تعرف كيف كان يشعر وبماذا يفكر..

وتظن أنها في لمحات خاطفة قد تحدثت عنك وعن نفسك المخبوءة في أعمق نقطة..

حكت الكاتبة معاناتها..طفولتها التي تبدو معقولة ومتميزة.. More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Terry rated it:

This is another one of those books that I'd always meant to read and never did. It's funny because I remember there being a lot of hullabaloo surrounding the publication, but now, nearly 15 years after the fact, her memoir seems almost derivative. It's odd to think that so many mental-illness-memoirs have come out that one of the pioneering works seems sort of... meh.

Jamison refers to herself as both an academic and a poet, and it shows in her writing. Many of her turns of phrase are More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Celeste rated it:

If you found "Year of Magical Thinking" tedious for it's over-simplification of a much larger problem because of the author's privilege, this book may piss you off even more. Kay, I refer to her by first name, cannot seem to shed her academic psychological background to tackle her own issues. I was disappointed.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2008

Suzanne rated it:

One of the best books I have read about bi-polar disorder (which I have).

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2011

Jessica rated it:

A lot of people seem to have a negative reaction to this book, which I totally get. I didn't find Jamison a particularly likable person, and this wasn't great literature, though it did go down fast and smooth.

Be that as it may, I've strongly recommended An Unquiet Mind several times, and I can't judge it by the normal standards that I apply to most books. I see An Unquiet Mind as performing a specific and vital function, at which I think it succeeds extremely well: that is, Jamison's m More...

8 comments like (17 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2008

Kellie rated it:

-I am glad I had the opportunity to read this book. If it wasn’t for bookcrossing, I wouldn’t be exposed to such a vast choice of interesting reads. With that being said, I am disappointed in this work. What I thought was going to be a personal depiction of a woman with manic depressive disorder, turned out to be, at times, a somewhat cold, dull and almost textbook like writing that seemed impersonal. I will not take away from the obvious. That this woman is brilliant and very successful in More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2008

Karl rated it:

I quite enjoyed this memoir, written by a woman who has been plagued by Manic-Depressive disorder for the better part of her life while at the same time becoming a leading researcher in its phenomenon. I feel it really provided a window into mental illness and those who suffer from it. Dr. Jamison writes in a very academic style which is very dry and generally formulaic, which is the only real problem I had with her writing. Its not a bad thing, its just a style that I do not prefer. This la More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Tasha rated it:

Very intriguing reading a psychiatrist's account of her own manic depression. The writing was a bit bland in parts for my tastes, but it's a window into an illness I didn't know much about. Worth a quick read.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 09, 2007

Tudie rated it:

This book shed light on the experience my mother had of suffering from bipolar 1. The author, a doctor who works in psychiatry herself, is inspirational in sharing her story with such insight, honesty and sensitivity. It is scary to think there are so many senseless deaths each year because people are afraid to come forward to get the help that will change their life. I was surprised to learn that this is especially prevalent with people working in the world of medicine or the millitary. The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2008

Cynthia rated it:

I had hoped for so much from this book. It is written by a psychologist who suffers from BiPolar Disorder. What insight she would share I thought. While there are some beautiful passages explaining her "white manias" and how engrossing these moods can be, overall it is just another memoir. It is wonderful this woman has risen to such heights in academia despite her disease and suicide attempt. I truly wanted some greater insight into the mind of a bipolar person. She tries but it is to More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 14, 2007

Devon rated it:

I read this book because I know a few people with bi-polar disorder (aka. are manic-depressive). I needed to learn how to understand and to function with these people, and a psychiatrist recommended this book. I was a little taken aback that it was a memoir, and not a more exhaustive non-fiction kind of reference thing, but most people probably find this much easier to read than the technical-but-engaging book that I was looking for. I feel that there is a lot more reading that I could do, but t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2007

Bic rated it:

DR. J, aside from being a well known clinical psychologist, also has the gift of writing. She decribes fairly well the seemingly indescribable highs and lows of the manic-depressive. She does delve some into the medical aspect of the disease but this is mostly a personal account of what she went through in 30+ years of suffering and finally coping with the illness. Some parts are sad but - refreshingly - there's little in the way of self-pity. recommended to fellow medical students who've wo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2008

Ellen rated it:

I was really curious about this book, and I did learn quite a bit about manic-depressive illness. I definitely admire the author, who is impressively intelligent and courageously candid about her disease. I was really interested to read about her struggles to continue taking medication for her illness, as well as her belief that there are aspects of manic-depression that are positive. I felt that the book gave me a new perspective on some of the friends I've had who have dealt with depression More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

David rated it:

Quite a book! This was recommended to me. I got a 3rd-party seller copy from Amazon ($1 plus shipping!). I started reading it last night, read til 2 am, and finished it this morning. I read it for a personal reason, but not because my own mind is all that unquiet (mine is more garden variety unquiet, like so many - or most? - of us). The book is now 15+ years old - at the time of its publication, medical doors had been thrown open re: how to best approach and treat manic depression (as opposed t More...

0 comments like

Nov 21, 2011

Abbey rated it:

"I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces. There will always be propelling, disturbing elements, and they will be there until, as Lowell put it, the watch is taken from th More...

0 comments like

Nov 20, 2011

Linda rated it:

The 2nd book I've read by a highly educated, accomplished woman with a severe mental illness. All the more amazing, as she was getting her PhD and tenure position at a time in history when there were very few other woman doing this. She quotes Dylan Thomas: "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower ... Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees / Is my destroyer." She writes "Fortunately, having fire in one's blood is not without its benefits in the world o More...

0 comments like

Aug 11, 2011

Aleeda rated it:

Note: BPD means bipolar disorder.

Thank goodness for Kay Redfield Jamison. For people who support BPD loved ones, it is difficult, if not impossible for us to understand what is going on. We don't know how high their highs are, or how low their lows are.

Kay Redfield Jamison does, intimately. Dr. Jamison (PhD) is a clinical psychologist and was diagnosed with BPD. With her writings, she has done much to help bipolar sufferers and their families comprehend the disease. An More...

0 comments like

Mar 18, 2011

pri rated it:

i think it's difficult to rate a memoir. other than to say whether you related to it or not. i am trying to understand and, to some degree, this helped. but to some degree, it didn't.

quote:
"Moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior can be seen as temporary, even understandable, reactions to what life has dealt. In my case, I had a horrible sense of loss for who I had been and More...

0 comments like

Mar 02, 2011

Barner rated it:

Kay Redfield Jamison writes about her own journey because of her manic depressive disease and of her care of others who suffer from the disease. (She is a well trained psychologist.) It is interesteing to read this just before all the sad news about Charlie Scheen and have some recognition and understanding of what he is enduring. Also it is amazing to learn how many of our population are troubled by diseases affecting the brain. Though I did not need to know about the prowness of her variou More...

0 comments like

Feb 27, 2011

pbj rated it:

This book is constantly recommended as a must-read to those either suffering from, or intimately involved with someone suffering from manic depression.
It is quite beautifully written, although the prose does lean heavily on quotations from many and varied modern poets.
I'm not sure who the intended audience for this book is, and I'm not sure what all those people recommending it think they are doing? Mrs. Jamison's experience with manic depression may be illuminating for the reader w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)