Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable Insight and a heartfelt tale
Review: I am mostly writing this to try to overcome the rant of one of the reviewers. This book will make you cry, inspire you, make you admire and love a special person; Dr Kay Refield. Not all suffers from this condition are as successful in dealing with it as she is. This is a true story, and a moving one. Not many of us are allowed to understand the inner workings of a mind like this. In a time when many spend most of their time trying to find out who to blame for their ills, this book talks about a person who looked deep inside, saw horrors and vowed to do something, and did. This book is a journey through the depths of a disease and back. The journey is chronicled by a fine person, and the story is told with such insight, tinged with utter anguish and will make your long for bright sun and a smile. A person is largely a creation of their minds and to read a mind, a brilliant mind, going to the depths of depresssion and back is a tale all should read. I am very happy that so far, Dr Jamison is healthy and serving her community, her story lets us know it may be temporary, I hope it isn't. Few of us are as honest as she is in describing our fears, no terrors a book like this makes it easier to understand ourselves and be honest when we look at ourselves. Today, Dr Jamison seems to be living a wonderful life, she deserves it.
Rating:
Summary: An agonizing tale, beautifully told
Review: In the literature of manic-depression, this work must stand out for the beauty and clarity of its writing. A first-person recounting of this most devastating and tragic illness, it is nevertheless a story of hope for the future. When you have a loved one suffering from this illness, you search every aspect of it, and that includes most importantly what has been written about it, particularly by someone who has the illness. These folks know the pain and pleasure they experience, and can relate to the reaction of those around them. Unfortunately, for all of its beauty and insightfulness, this book shows what may be accomplished when a person with this illness has a life of privilege and some financial security, in addition to a job where it's possible "to shut the door to the office and not see anyone for long periods of time". Dr. Jamison had access to the best care in the field, in addition to an extensive network of friends and family, and financial resources, to enable her to battle her illness, and even then she suffered greatly. What about the "common people", those poor souls who don't have her advantages, but yet must soldier along day by day, getting up in the morning and working, because if the money stops, they and their family who depend upon them will be left destitute. While I admire this author for what she has accomplished, I admire much more the ordinary people who do what they must to get through every day without all of these advantages. They are the true, but unsung, heroes of this illness. What I have just said detracts in no way from the importance of this book, and I strongly recommend it as essential reading for those who suffer, or who have a loved one who suffers, from manic-depression. To try to succeed in any fight, you must truly "know your enemy", and this book, while occasionally frightening, will help.
Rating: 
Summary: Please *stop* giving this book to bipolar friends
Review: Kay Jamison's smug, self-serving, self-satisfied account of her experience with bipolar disorder is just not the sort of thing one should inflict on a lesser being (e.g., anyone who is not Dr. Jamison.) For the love of God, stop buying this book for sufferers: we already have it, we bitterly despise it, and the recycling guy is on record that he will not pick up another copy. The essence of a disease memoir is humility. When I audit another soul's trip through hell, I'm looking for glimmers, resonances, unplaceable smells, I'm trying to find shared shapes, to find my memory within the author's. It's a collaborative thing, this secondhand journey, and it only happens when an author is honest enough to speak from the heart. Jamison's strident voice of self-congratulation, though, derails any semblance of empathy. Several years back I resided at alt.support.depression, one of the more chaotic newsgroups on the usenet system. A thread got going re Unquiet Mind, and the prevailing opinion was that Jamison was just too groovy to afford an honest account of manic depression. Someone wrote to the effect that, while Kay was brewing up lobsters in Scotland, he was in restraints at UCLA. For me, that's always nailed the problem with Jamison as a supposed spokesperson for my disease: she goes to such lengths to establish her credentials as an admirable normie that she cannot bring herself to write about the truly horrifying aspects of the mental illness experience. She writes well enough: her objects agree with her verbs, she doesn't misuse the apostrophe. You could say she is educated, in a superficial, aren't I cute kind of way. But the insistent subvocal self promotion becomes a nails-on-the-chalkboard harmonic for nearly every paragraph. She makes Patty Duke look like Camus.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the average reader
Review: While I think it's wonderful the author opens up her private life to share the pain and struggle as a manic-depressive, I wouldn't recommend this book to the average lay-person. It appears to be more suited for an audience within the medical profession. I also wouldn't expect to find a lot of answers or hope, but it is interesting reading.
Rating:
Summary: The Words I Couldn't Say
Review: Dr. Jamison writes an honest and revealing book based on personal experience with manic depressive disorder. As a fellow survivor, I found her descriptions to be exactly the words I would have used, only couldn't form them myself. It is a wonderful book, and I was filled with a deep appreciation and admiration for this woman. She gave me the courage to keep up the daily fight. A must read for manic depressives and families alike.
Rating: 
Summary: There is hope for manic depressives after all
Review: Dr. Jamison gives us a good slant on the not so bad side of manic-depressive illness. In her case it seems she was more manic than depressive. For the large part of her story it seems she rather enjoyed the manic stages as severe as they may have been. It allowed her tremendous productivity, at least intellectually. Her social and love life seemed to have suffered minimally. Her suicide attempt, as severe as it may seem, was just that, a severe attempt. Her suicide was aborted by a sort of conditioned response to answering a telephone call. Subconsciously although she does not admit it, and I am surprised to be saying this of a practitioner in the mental health arena, she allowed herself enough open opportunity to be saved. True suicides will make sure that their plan is executed without flaw or the possibility of being saved for they truly want to die. Of special note one can infer that she offers positive criteria for overcoming this illness provided these existed before the onset of the illness. Basically, they are: a fundamentally strong ego; a healthy sense of self worth and esteem (positive memories allow the manic-depressive a desire to recapture what they once were); a solid upbringing and strong moral values; goal oriented achiever with an intellectual predisposition; nurturing friends and family that can stand by without care to the dangers of forfeiting ones employment and income as a consequence of such involvement with the person, excellent but rare psychiatric care that extends beyond medical management into good, valuable one-on-one talking therapy; and lastly a patient's cooperation and perseverance albeit fragmented to continue with the therapy in one way or another. Unfortunately, one can surmise from the high rate of suicide in this country due to manic-depressive illness that any one or most those criteria are missing in manic-depressive patients in this nation. However, her success allows us hope and she proves that not all manic depressives end in suicide or institutional hopelessness and can enjoy a good measure of professional and personal success after all.
Rating:
Summary: ashes and diamonds
Review: Kay Redfield Jamison knows manic-depressive illness, a term she prefers over "bipolar disorder", from the inside out. In this masterful memoir she writes of her soaring highs and despairing lows eloquently, never running out of words to describe the two extreme states. Holder of a PhD in psychology from UCLA, she candidly admits that lithium is vitally necessary to manage her mental health, but also she believes that therapy will help a great deal toward resolving the many breakages---career path, friendships, love affairs--that manic depression can leave in its wake. She is generous in her praise and thanks to all who have helped her through the years, from colleague-therapists, to her lovers, to her mother, brother, and his children. As I read this book, I had questions about various topics: How common is this disorder and through how many generations can we currently trace it? What was done in the past to treat it? How does one "regulate" the dosage of lithium so life is not just shades of grey forever? How strong is the hereditary component? How did Jamison, who is childless, feel about having children? The author has thought through her presentation so well that by the time I finished, all my queries had been addressed. Jamison is awe of current biotech studies, which depict in vivid color photos the state of the brain, from excited and "high" moods to depressed and "low". But is life more than mere chemical reactions? Jamison's heroic determination to claim her life and to relish it in spite of manic-depressive illness gives us a resounding "yes!"
Rating:
Summary: An intense and moving memoir
Review: You don't need to have a medical or personal interest in Manic-Depression / Biplolar illness to enjoy reading this book. It is magnificently well written and is intensely intimate. It is a look at mental illness that is intelligent and welcome. Years of "talk therapy" can be summed up and possibly even avoided by just quietly reading and re-reading this approachable volume of memories and reflections by a reknowned professional in the field of Bipolar Affective Disorder. It is also a superb book to pass along to family members to help them help the loved one who is ill. I wonder if anyone working in managed care has ever read this?
Rating:
Summary: If you are a social worker, you MUST have this book.
Review: This is just a wonderful true story depiction of author Kay Redfield Jamison as a woman suffering from bipolar illness. She gives very personal accounts of living with the disease and how it affected her life and career. If you are a social worker in the mental health field, you must own this book! Bipolar illness is a common occurence to encounter in working in mental health and this book will give you insight into the mind of someone who really lived it and is not afraid to tell her story. Thumbs up to Ms. Jamison for sharing these triumphs and tragedies with us!
Rating:
Summary: an essential resource.
Review: When I was first diagnosed with BPD, I was given this book by a friend. My copy is now worn, with dog-eared pages, highlighting, and notes in the margins. As a counselor, I admired her ability to interweave essential factual information about the illness with her own experience. As the author of another book which is considered THE work regarding bipolar illness by professionals, she is by far the best person to take information and advice from.
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