Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind

Kay Redfield Jamison’s, ‘An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness’ is a first person memoir about the author’s life and struggles with having manic-depressive illness, or bi-polar disorder. It is an eye-opening read, as well as one that is much easier to read rather than a textbook or essay on the subject. She discusses her experiences with bi-polar, as well as the issues of taking lithium, and being a psychologist with the disorder. The first few chapters of the book are about her childhood, what her family was like, how living in an Air Force community made her life structured and restricting, and how as she grew older, she longed for freedom, but also started to experience mood swings. The book then continues to explain her college education, her profession, and her experiences within her love life, all while dealing with bipolar disorder. By the end of the book, Jamison makes it clear that with medication and therapy, a person can take control of their life, and should not be
She did not delve into much detail about how her actions affected her relationships with her family and her lovers, which we can assume could be strenuous at times. When she begins to discuss the issues of having children of her own, she even goes so far as to question if people with manic-depression are in danger of becoming endangered. She says that if we eventually rid the world of people with manic-depression using genes and prenatal diagnosis, we risk the world of becoming a much blander place. After some quick research, it becomes clear about her stance on artistic creativity and psychological illness as she has written an entirely different book on the subject. I find this view of hers to be a stretch, and that not every artist must have some sort of psychological