Rating: 
Summary: Poetic, pretty and shallow.
Review: Kay Jamison overused the thesaurus in her attempt to make manic depression appear beautiful, which it is NOT. Instead of expressing the true, heartfelt, humiliating, struggle of manic depression,she sidetracks the reader on her glorious love affairs and career. Although she was brave to come forward, there is a twist to it, because she probably should have majored in literature, which seems to be her real love. Despite all her advanced psychology degrees, do not believe that what you are getting is the true steak and potatos about bipolar illness. It's just poetic, pretty and shallow. This woman wants to be loved, and I don't blame her. But she could start by being more human and more real.
Rating: 
Summary: A pulls-no-punches account of manic depression
Review: An easy, breezy read on the horror and poignancy of manic depression. An excellent starting point for loved ones trying to understand the disorder. And thank God Ms. Jamison can write! I thought my brain was going to fall out of its slot after I read Patty Duke's "A Brilliant Madness."
Rating: 
Summary: Very emotional, well-written
Review: While I don't suffer from manic-depression, I was diagnosed as depressed about two years ago. I noticed a lot of similarities between what I was feeling and what the author spoke of in the book. I found myself relating to her, even though her illness is much more extreme than I ever had. And, it also taught me a lot about manic-depression. I enjoyed this book, and I genuinely sympathized with Kay Redfield Jamison.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book and very informative
Review: I am engaged to a manic-depressive man and I found this book to be a wonderful insight to what is going on inside his mind. I felt like this book could have been written about my fiancee, although my fiancee is not violent at all. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone who has a loved one or friend who is manic-depressive.
Rating:
Summary: very well expressed personal anguish of an enlightened suffe
Review: I am a professor of psychiatry at deccan college of medical sciences, hyderabad, India and I have bought two volumes of this wonderful book. I have also read her very exciting book Touched with Fire and have instantly become a great admirer of Redfield Jamieson. I have also acquired the big volume on Manic Depressive Psychosis. I tell my students that if they wish to understrand the evolving process of manic depressive psychosis, they must read her book the Unquiet Mind. I rate this book at the same level as Aubrey Lewis's beautiful description about Mania and hypomania. As a matter of fact I have learnt a lot from this book and many of my learned manic depressive patients have benifitted from this book. In this world of doubts and confusion about the use of medication in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, this is a very authentic book about the success story of pharmacotherapy. It clearly gives a message that Jamieson would not have been where she is too, but for the use of Lithium. I have had the good fortune of having worked with the discoverer of Lithium from Australia, Cade, who died an unhappy man, because there were very few lithium success stories by then. Had he been alive today, he would have fellt truly vindicated in her book. I wish to invite her to Hyderabad, but it is not so easy to meet all the expenses.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive and poorly written
Review: This book was selected for my book club, so dutifully I plowed through an unenlightening, ungrammatical and repetitive story of one woman's struggle with manic-depression illness. The writing was choppy, her poor use of punctuation was infuriating, and her style left much to be desired. The story seemed to end halfway through the book, leaving me to wonder what was left to tell in the second half - much to my dismay it was basically a repeat of previously provided information, or more detail on episodes already described. It was all I could do not to throw the book across the room in frustration! I can see how this book might be helpful for those who suffer from this illness, but Jamison needs to stick to textbook and article writing, and leave the layman's books to those who know how to write.
Rating:
Summary: A concise personal account of Manic-Depression.
Review: Jamison has used her own experience to take one through what it is like to suffer from manic-depressive disorder. I felt this book to be very comforting and very self affirming. Sharing it with my family gave them insight into what I was going through. Her openess and easy reading style created a novel like read. It was easy to get through even though a lot of data and scientific information were presented. This book must be read by anyone who suffers from or knows anyone who suffers from manic-depressive illness. I also suggest reading Darkness Visible by William Styron.
Rating:
Summary: So?
Review: I am bipolar and this book didn't do much for me. In her defense, Ms Jamison did something very important in that she showed the world a manic depressive who had come to live in the real world and had succeeded. It takes a lot to undo what Patty Duke did when she made a movie depicting herself pitching King Kong fits and ruining everything - not an image that does a lot for the rest of us when we are out here trying to get insurance, jobs, and everything else. That's why Jamison's book is very necessary. However, as a bipolar person, reading about someone else's problems with the disease doesn't do anything for me. If I wanted that I'd write my own autobiography. I found this book egotistical, and if she meant to help me with my illness by writing it, then she could have talked a little more about my illness and a little less about the life she found so extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: This book has changed my world
Review: When I first found out I had bipolar disorder, my head was full of nightmarish confusion. This book has been like a euphoria to me. Seeing things on paper that I thought only existed in my own head has been exceptionally gratifying. This is the finest book ever written on the subject of manic depression, because it is not a textbook, it is real life.
Rating:
Summary: OK book, but not representive of it's Title
Review: I have bipolar disorder and bought the book soon after I found out I had it. I was mainly curoius to curious to read about her manic/depressive episodes and what types of things happened to her and how she felt when they happend and then find out details on treatment and the effects and any reoccurences/problems from treatment. She doesn't go into much detail about that. The book seems mainly a biography of her life and breifly mentions periods of depression or mainia. When she mentions those items she glosses over it and doesen't go into a lot of detail. With a title of "Unquiet Mind" I guess I was just expecting more details and depth and focus on an Unquiet mind. Perhaps a better title for the book would be "An Autobiography of Kay Redfield Jamison" because the book mainly seems to discuss various events of her life.In trying to be fair, the book isn't a bad book, I just think the title is a little misleading. The book is fairly easy to read and I just wished its focus was more about a person with bipolar disorder and what happens in their mind, what they were thinking, the thought process they are going through, etc.
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