An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison.

I never liked memoirs before this, but now I'm actually thinking about reading a few others.

Dr. Jamison is an exceptional writer. I'm not sure how others would view it, but I found it to be positively fascinating. I mean it when I say I couldn't put it down..

Dr. Jamison has manic-depressive disorder. The book is written by a woman who is both the healer and the healed, and her insights, are simultaneously straightforward and clincal as well as poetic and devastatingly human.

I'd always held a bitterness toward my mother (who is also a victim of manic-depressive illness) because of her frequent refusals to stay on her lithium. I knew it could help her control her mood swings, but I didn't understand how devastating the effects of lithium can be on someone who has experienced fantastic and exhilarating highs as a result of their illness.

At times, I felt as though I was reading my mother's life story, because I was seeing so many traits that both she and Dr. Jamison share: attractive, brilliant clinicians who are plagued by an (to quote from the book) "oddly seductive" illness.

A brilliant piece.