preview

Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind

Decent Essays

An Unquiet Mind Kay Redfield Jamison, an American clinical psychologist and author published one of her books An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness in 1995. The book, as the title describes, is an emotionally moving memoir of emotions. Jamison has had bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive illness, since her young adulthood and An Unquiet Mind unapologetically takes readers through the roller coaster of which is her life. Albeit bipolar disorder is hard to understand without having it, this memoir gives an honest yet informative understanding of Jamison’s personal experience with manic-depressive illness. From her early childhood to the peaks of her illness, An Unquiet Mind shows the perspective of an otherwise perplexing disorder …show more content…

At this point in her life, Jamison was slowly developing bipolar disorder and it was starting to interfere with her judgements and decision making. The style of her writing already gives the impression of instability and indecisiveness, as she goes from telling about her life as a 28 year old to telling of her childhood within the first ten pages. Jamison, born in 1946 into a military family moved around a lot and attended a plethora of different elementary schools. She goes on to tell readers about how much she looked up to her brother and how her relationship with her sister was complicated yet loving. Although their family was anything but stable and constant, her parents did their best to make it feel like it was and she was undeniably supported by her parents. Like her father, Jamison was wildly interested in sciences. Most particularly, when she visited a psychiatric facility as a child she became fascinated with the concepts of psychology, and was not afraid to ask questions and speak with patients, unlike the other participants of the tour. Her father, an Air Force Officer, also has bipolar disorder and is described as charming and deeply involved in their lives, that is, when he was manic. As she describes, ”It was enchanting, really, rather like having Mary Poppins as a

Get Access