An Unquiet Mind Summary

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison is Jamison’s personal account of developing both personally and professionally, while struggling with manic-depressive illness. Jamison allows the reader a glimpse into her childhood and adult lives, and the way her impact greatly helped and tremendously hurt her at the same time. She shares her personal feelings of fear of herself, but also fear to ask for help.
The account of development with manic-depressive illness is highly subjective, as it is Jamison’s personal account. Certainly, not every person with manic-depressive illness is going to have the exact same experiences as Jamison. Jamison provides many vivid descriptions of her episodes, for example, she characterizes

her manias as being filled with “great personal pleasure, and incomparable flow of thoughts, and a ceaseless energy that allowed the translation of new ideas into papers and projects” (95). Jamison, however, is able to discuss manic-depressive illness with tremendous knowledge, not only from her personal experiences with it, but also due to the fact that she has become a psychiatrist, and works with people experiencing the same illness.
As a child, Jamison grew up in a military family, for her father was an air force pilot. She moved around a lot as a kid, yet experienced relative ease in her transitions. In her later childhood, however, she realizes that “the military, even more so than the rest of society, clearly put a premium on well-behaved, genteel, and even-tempered women” (30). She seems to be disapproving of this strict expectation of gender roles, but is not given much of an opportunity to voice her opinion. Being in the military, her father seems to have parented her with a somewhat authoritarian style, enforcing rules simply with the rationale that she should obey the authority figure.
After her father retired from the military, Jamison has to join in the lifestyle and schooling of “wealthy and blasé southern Californians” (30). During this time in her life, Jamison began to face troubles in adjustment. She states, “it was not easy to have to acknowledge my very real limitations in background and ability” (32). As described in Erikson’s theory of development, she experienced a sense inferiority to the other children both academically and socially. She explains how her mother and brother were both strong support systems both at this point and later on in her life. On the other hand, Jamison and her sister did not have a very close relationship. Jamison describes her father and showing high moods with laughter and creativity, but also having some deeply depressive states. Jamison’s father had manic-depressive illness. Manic-depressive illness is, in fact, genetic, and from Jamison’s accounts, impacts the way family relationships play out.
Her story continues into her high school and college years, during which she started to really experience the effects of her manic-depressive illness.

While in remissions, Jamison experienced being a bright student and having the opportunity to participate in various research programs at both University of California-Los Angeles and St. Andrews in Scotland. During her manias, ideas flowed, and she was very successful in writing papers and creating ideas. In her depressions, on the other hand, she explains that she couldn’t seem to think at all. She rarely attended class, and even if she did, she couldn’t pay attention at

all.
Jamison explains that she was helped getting through this time in her life by a series of mentors and significant others. The faculty and professionals she worked with were very understanding and accommodating of her illness. They allowed her to work through her manias, and take time off during her depressions. They trusted her judgment on when she could practice competently, and when she would need to schedule her work for another time. In fact, many of the professionals she worked with also experiences manic-depressive illness or depression. In fact, she shares the quote of the chairman of the department of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, who said “If we got rid of all the manic-depressives on the medical school faculty, not would we have a much smaller faculty, it would also be a far more boring one” (209).
Jamison’s story has many valuable messages intended to be shared with a widespread audience.

First and foremost, she shares that “there is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness and terror involved in this kind of madness” (67). Although she does attribute some of her successes in life to manic-depressive illness, she makes it clear that her intention is not to glorify the illness. She makes it clear that her manias also came with unhealthy spending habits, and discusses the suicidal thoughts and attempts that came with the darkness of her depressions. She explicitly states that manic-depressive illness “kill[s] tens of thousands of people every year: most are young, most die unnecessarily, and many are among the most imaginative we have as a society” (5). The final part of this statement aligns with the common belief that creativity often comes at the cost of mental stability and

health.
Jamison’s story is a message to all those with mental illnesses that a biological difference should not hold you back. Jamison was still able to study at some of the most prestigious institutions and follow her dreams of becoming a psychiatrist. She attributes much of this success to the impact lithium had on her success in controlling her moods. She shares “At this point in my existence, I cannot imagine leading a normal life without both taking lithium and having had the benefits of psychotherapy” (88). She emphasizes the point that not only drugs, but also cognitive treatment and support are what allowed her to feel as “normal” as possible, and encourages her patients to follow a similar treatment plan.
She does not pretend, however, that she was immediately receptive to this plan of treatment. She shares her belief during her time in college that “antidepressants might be indicated for psychiatric patients, for those of weaker stock, but not for us” (54). She also describes that she was scared to see a psychiatrist at first, and was nervous about what this psychiatrist would tell her. She describes very real hesitations that come with treatment of mental illnesses, but ultimately, praises them for the positive impact they have had on her life.