An unquiet mind - Kay Redfield Jamison

Dr Kay Redfield Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive illness. She has also experienced it first-hand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, she was affected by the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candour, courage, wit and wisdom, which examines manic depression from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and its cruel allure.

'Quite astonishing . . . cuts through the dead jargon and detached observations of psychiatric theory and practice to create a fiery, passionate, authentic account of the devastation and exaltation, the blindness and illumination of the psychotic experience' Anthony Clare, Sunday Times

'Superbly written, An Unquiet Mind recognizes the poetic exhilaration of pure mania . . . a compelling work of literature' Ian Thomson, Independent on Sunday

'A landmark in the history of writing about manic-depressive illness' Alan D. Ogilvie, British Medical Journal

'Affecting, honest, touching' Will Self