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. it does a lot to irradi More...

كتاب رائع و مميز قطعا
.مع انى شفت مرضى اصلا بنفس المرض-اكتئاب الهوس ثنائى القطب- و قعدت معاهم فى كورس النفسى فى الكليه و اعتقدت انى اعرف تقريبا كل حاجه عن المرض لكن الكتاب قربنى انسانيا من المرض

دائما ما اقترن اسم الذهان ثنائى القطب بالابداع لكن حتى هؤلاء المبدعين لم يكتبوا عن مرضهم لكن لكون الكاتبه ذات معرفه طبيه فقد تناولت الموضوع من زاويه طبيه-ادبيه مشتركه

اعيب على الكتاب فقط الاسهاب فى بعض الفصول و لم تحديد فكره لكل فصل فجاءت الفصول متشابه بعض الشئ

song theme
سعاد حسنى - شيكا بيكا
http://www.yout More...

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 surprised. I seemed to rememb More...

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 t More...

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 التعبير- التي يعيشها كل من يعان More...

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 insanity is enoug More...

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 published by a major publishe More...

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 viewpoint of a brilliant More...

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 into the mind of someone with More...

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 Jamison’s childhood and more specifically, her manic father. The second More...

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.

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..متى وكيف بدأ مرضها..أيام هوسها ثم ظلمات اكتئابها..

حكت كيف يم More...

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 exquisitel More...

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.

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

If you are manic-depressive and reading this book, these are the take away points: make sure you have an amazingly supportive, selfless and kind parent (the other one probably gave you the bad genes), make sure you are blond and cute so men trip over themselves to provide you with a loving relationship in which you can recuperate, make sure you're studying psychiatry so that you are surrounded by qualified physicians, and take lithium. Oh, and don't forget the psychotherapy which is the ONLY thi More...

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 memoir does More...

-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 her More...

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 lack o More...

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.

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 sti More...

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 too dry, too More...

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...

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 wonder More...

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 an More...

More...

This is a breathtaking book - beautifully written, incredibly honest, generous, courageous - it is a gift really. I anticipate it will stay with me a long, long time. I admired Kay's ability to mix her own harrowing experience with objectivity and ethical considerations, to recall the chinks of light in the midst of darkness, to give due to all those who supported and loved her. Her utter honesty and energy and compassion are overwhelming. It is a memoir, but even writing one's life is storytell More...

I read this book years ago when a friend's daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. My knowledge with respect to this mental illness was very peripheral and I wanted to find out more. I was able to borrow this book from the Canadian Mental Health Association in my city and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter.

The author has been a psychologist / physician for many bipolar patients and involved in academia, both on staff and heading up departments, in a number of we More...

إقتبآس من الصفحة 228 :
" لقد هجرت منذ فترة طويلة فكرة وجود حياة بدون عواصف، أو عالم بدون مواسم قاحلة وقاتلة. إن الحياة معقدة إلى حد بعيد، ومتغيرة بصورة دائمة، ولا يمكن أن تكون إلا كذلك. وأنا، بطبيعتي ، متقلبة جداً ولا أستطيع أن أكون أي شيء إلا شديدة الحذر من المحاولة غير الطبيعية المهلكة للممارسة تحكم كبير جداً بقوى لا يمكن التحكم فيها بالأساس . سوف تكون هناك دائماً عوامل دافعة ، ومقلقة، وستبقى هناك حتى " تزال الساعة من المعصم " كما قال لويل !، إنها في نهاية الأمر، اللحظات الخاصة من القلق، والسو More...