Summary: An Unquiet Mind
Saurabh Saini
Ms. Kati Milter
10 October, 2015
ENGL-110
An Unquiet Mind
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is an autobiography, which is written by psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison. Although being a doctor, Jamison had portrayed her story articulately. She has put emphasis on her bipolar diseases, predominantly on her mercurial moods.
The story is chronological, which initiates with the description of her childhood and adolescence days. The first part, The Wild Blue Yonder, begins in Washington, with a dreadful military jet crash which is dispiriting for all the second graders, including Kay. She expounds her expedition to St. Elizabeth’s, the federal psychiatric hospital in the District of Columbia, where she encounters psychiatric patients and perceives their behavior for the first time. This part illustrates the starting of her hallucinations and mood swings when she …show more content…
joins UCLA.
The second part, A Not So Fine Madness, reveals the depths of Kay’s depression and frenetic behavior.
She delineates about the events which make her loose the control over her mind and body. She describes, “Which of my feelings are real? Which of them is me? The wild, impulsive, chaotic, energetic, and crazy one? Or the shy, withdrawn, desperate, suicidal, doomed, and tired one? Probably a bit of both, hopefully, much that is neither.” the reasons behind her overdose of lithium and mood swings.
The third part, This Medicine, Love, is based completely on her love life and how her lovers helped her to overcome her manic depressions. Jamison describes her love as a medicine which was better than taking lithium, “After each seeming death within my mind or heart, love has returned to recreate hope and restore life. It has, at its best, made the inherent sadness of life bearable, and its beauty manifest. It has, inexplicably and savingly, provided not only cloak but lantern for the darker seasons and grimmer weather.” She talks about her love for David Laurie and Richard Wyatt
explicitly.
The last part, An Unquiet Mind, Dr. Jamison describes both personal and professional reasons why she had been disinclined to tell others about her bipolar diseases. This part arises a contentious question whether someone with mental illness should be allowed to treat patients? Moreover, Dr. Jamison’s achievements in psychiatry and over her own bipolar disease are stated.
Ms. Kati Milter
10 October, 2015
ENGL-110
An Unquiet Mind
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is an autobiography, which is written by psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison. Although being a doctor, Jamison had portrayed her story articulately. She has put emphasis on her bipolar diseases, predominantly on her mercurial moods.
The story is chronological, which initiates with the description of her childhood and adolescence days. The first part, The Wild Blue Yonder, begins in Washington, with a dreadful military jet crash which is dispiriting for all the second graders, including Kay. She expounds her expedition to St. Elizabeth’s, the federal psychiatric hospital in the District of Columbia, where she encounters psychiatric patients and perceives their behavior for the first time. This part illustrates the starting of her hallucinations and mood swings when she …show more content…
joins UCLA.
The second part, A Not So Fine Madness, reveals the depths of Kay’s depression and frenetic behavior.
She delineates about the events which make her loose the control over her mind and body. She describes, “Which of my feelings are real? Which of them is me? The wild, impulsive, chaotic, energetic, and crazy one? Or the shy, withdrawn, desperate, suicidal, doomed, and tired one? Probably a bit of both, hopefully, much that is neither.” the reasons behind her overdose of lithium and mood swings.
The third part, This Medicine, Love, is based completely on her love life and how her lovers helped her to overcome her manic depressions. Jamison describes her love as a medicine which was better than taking lithium, “After each seeming death within my mind or heart, love has returned to recreate hope and restore life. It has, at its best, made the inherent sadness of life bearable, and its beauty manifest. It has, inexplicably and savingly, provided not only cloak but lantern for the darker seasons and grimmer weather.” She talks about her love for David Laurie and Richard Wyatt
explicitly.
The last part, An Unquiet Mind, Dr. Jamison describes both personal and professional reasons why she had been disinclined to tell others about her bipolar diseases. This part arises a contentious question whether someone with mental illness should be allowed to treat patients? Moreover, Dr. Jamison’s achievements in psychiatry and over her own bipolar disease are stated.