An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

"It stands alone in the literature of manic-depression for its bravery, brilliance, and beauty." -- Oliver Sacks

   The above quote sounds like the expected back cover copy marketing for a memoir, yet coming from someone as knowlegeable as Dr. Sacks the endorsement deserves attention. The reader who accepts this recommendation will be rewarded fully in all three categories.

   Dr. Jamison gives us first a life story, describing the early signs of a future illness and following its progression within the stages of her successful career as a mental health professional, and through loving relationships. To reveal her struggles in this way is a gift not lightly offered, given the reality of stigma.

   The brilliance and beauty of the book come in equal measure when she is explaining her thought processes during a psychotic state, albeit one that suggests the most fine experience of the artist in creating image and metaphor. In a chapter entitled Missing Saturn she writes "The intensity, glory and absolute assuredness of my mind's flight made it very difficult to believe, once I was better, that the illness was one I should give up."

   Family, friends and professionals have often been puzzled at the depth of denial and the exent of refusal of people with bipolar illness to take medication to control bizarre and dysfunctional behaviors. But understood through Dr. Jamison's account, it is perhaps more puzzling that so many do act in a "medically sensible way."

   Her descriptions of the lower end of the "pole" are equally memorable. She allows that depression "bleeds relationships... gives you the experience of how it must feel to be old and sick, to be dying; to be slow of mind; to be lacking in grace, polish and coordination; to be ugly; to have no belief in the possibilities of life.. " Not since William Styron's Darkness Visible have words been used so beautifully to describe something so dark.

   The book ends with thoughtful sections about the implications of what we know about the genetics of the illness and other questions without easy answers. This work can be easily appreciated by professionals or by anyone seeking understanding of the experience of friends or family who suffer the disorder.