An Unquiet Mind

Brad Gilson

Abnormal Psychology

book review #1

An Unquiet Mind

        Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder marked by exceedingly grand and elevated moods along with exceptionally horrible periods of depression. The alters in mood and period of time in each excessive mood seem to be unpredictable and random. This very dangerous disease has a suicide rate nearing 10% with a self harm rate of around 40%. Kay Redfield Jamison, within her very unsettling, yet insightful book named An Unquiet Mind, bravely attempts to display and explain the disease to the public; which seems to have only a miniature grasp of the disorder. People, even well versed and educated at that, still associate certain stigmas with the disease. Jamison's main purposes for this very dark, yet necessary piece is to inform, educate and advocate. Within the later parts of her book, she states  “I have become fundamentally and deeply skeptical that anyone who does not have this illness can truly understand it.” (page 174) However, even saying this, she still is determined to put the spotlight on this diseases and elucidate the problems one faces upon developing the disease. She tells  of her horrific experiences due to bipolar disorder and how extremely long it took for her to accept the “rather bittersweet exchange of a comfortable and settled present existence” in exchange for a “troubled but intensely lived past.”(page 211). I found four themes as overwhelmingly evident and relevant throughout the entirety of the novel, being confusion, addiction, rejection and ignorance.

        Within An Unquiet Mind, confusion is displayed in different ways throughout the text. Firstly, confusion becomes present within the book when Jamison was ironically in school training to become a psychiatrist, when she was actually learning how to diagnose certain diseases and disorders like bipolar disorder. She declares "Despite the fact that we were being taught how to make clinical diagnoses, I still did not make any connection in my own mind between the problems I had experienced and what was described as manic-depressive illness in the textbooks"(page 58). She stresses how it took her years to finally put the two things together and discover that she was in a bloody brawl with such a serious disorder. In addition, she also had problems with her personal identity, along with whether the feelings and emotions she experienced were real and sincere or if they were just merely effects of her extreme case of bipolar disorder. She states, “I was confused and frightened and terribly shattered in all my notions of myself... What did I do? Why? and most hauntingly, when will it happen again? Which of my feelings are real? Which of the me’s is me?” (page 85-86) I especially thought this was a powerful quote within the text, it is a very scary thought that people like Kay could not honestly and confidently answer questions like  “who are you?”, “what do you stand for?” and “what makes you happy?” Especially considering this, one can start to understand why suicidal attempts are not unusual in the case of such serious disorders; it almost can take away one's meaning and want to live. Jamison does a great job placing emphasis on informing the readers how much frustration and confusion it can cause within individuals through the descriptions she gives of past feelings and escapades with the disease.

        Addiction and rejection are also two prevalent and associated themes within An Unquiet Mind. Jamison tells of her developed addiction of sorts to her manic highs and how this was very influential in her choosing not to take lithium earlier in her life. She expresses how when she was high she would feel like a “crazed weasel”, constantly running around and staying up into the late hours of the night. Kay tells of how she believed almost anything was possible during her manic highs, and how no task was too strenuous. She then goes on to tell  problems that she encountered because of her overwhelming manic highs to give the reader insight on the manic mind and offer a better understanding of manic behavior to the audience. One huge problem she encountered was the ability to budget her money. Unfortunately, she almost went broke because of her constant shopping sprees during her highs. Both her good relationships and the support she received from her brother and mother (not named)  were the only things saving her from an impoverished lifestyle. This addiction to the highs associated with her disorder brings on the third theme I noted within the book, rejection.

        Kay Jamison's rejection of lithium due to her addiction of her manic episodes almost end up costing Kay her life. She expresses how, following the completion of graduate work in clinical psychology that she “was manic beyond recognition and just beginning a long, costly personal war against a medication (lithium) that I would, in a few year's time, be strongly encouraging others to take.” (page 4) Her sister also got her five cents in, which did not turn out to be the best advice for her sick sister, she would always tell her to fight through the symptoms without medication and to not be “weak.” Jamison, only through strong support from her brother, mother, friends, colleagues, psychiatric care and her acceptance of her own illness was she able to reach a state of relative normality (tolerable levels of medication/decreased intensity of mood swings).