An Unquiet Mind

Kay Redfield Jamison

3 ideas

1. Researcher refuses lithium, relapses, attempts suicide

   Kay Redfield Jamison, a UCLA psychology professor who studied mood disorders, was diagnosed with manic-depressive illness in her late twenties and prescribed lithium. She repeatedly stopped taking it, missing her high moods and resenting side effects like nausea and dulled concentration, and each time relapsed into mania and then severe depression. The cycle ended in a near-fatal lithium overdose in her late twenties, after which she committed to lifelong treatment.

2. Medication and psychotherapy as complementary in recovery

   In Jamison's account, lithium prevented her ruinous highs and lows, but psychotherapy helped her work through the grief, shame, and fear of recurrence that came with treatment. She describes the two as working together, and credits both with her own recovery and with her staying on the drug.

3. Illness entangled with identity and career

   Jamison presents her manic-depressive temperament as bound up with her intensity, creativity, and capacity for feeling, so her question becomes which parts to keep while controlling the destruction. Her hesitation to disclose the illness reflects both this personal exposure and concrete professional risks, such as threats to her clinical privileges and standing.

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