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An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is a memoir written by American clinical psychologist and bipolar disorder researcher Kay Redfield Jamison and published in 1995. The book details Jamison's experience with bipolar disorder and how it affected her in various areas of her life from childhood up until the writing of the book. Narrated in the first person, the book shows the effect of manic-depressive illness in family and romantic relationships, professional life, and self-awareness, and highlights both the detrimental effects of the illness and the few positive ones. The book was originally published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in New York and reprinted by Vintage Books in paperback in 1997.

Part 1: The Wild Blue Yonder
Jamison describes her childhood and early life as part of a military family and the effects that had on her life, including a very conservative upbringing and the need to make new friends after every relocation. She recalls having a very happy childhood, and a supportive family. Her father was creative and charismatic and her mother kind and yet resourceful. In her adolescence she showed an interest in science and medicine which later switched to psychology. When her family moves to California, her family life deteriorates with her father becoming more prone to depressive episodes and her mother busy pursuing professional goals. It is at this time, her senior year in high school, that Jamison experiences her first episode of hypomania, followed by her first episode of depression, which she was able to go through passing as normal. Some time later Jamison starts her undergraduate studies at UCLA, where she determines clinical psychology as her career path. After finishing her undergraduate, Jamison earns her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA and becomes a professor in the Department of Psychiatry.

Part 2: A Not So Fine Madness
Jamison describes her episodes of mania and how they related to her personal and professional life. Her heightened energy and emotions make her a social at work and very efficient with her responsibilities, but irritable and restless in her marriage, which leads her to separating from her husband. She describes periods of reckless spending as characteristic of her mania, and how her brother helped her fix her financial situation. Jamison describes how, in her mania, her brain couldn't focus to read a single paragraph or listen to a song. Shortly after this she seeks treatment for the first time, and a colleague confronts her with her need to take lithium for her disease. Around this time Jamison starts seeing a psychiatrist with whom she starts psychotherapy sessions that would become a part of her routine for the rest of her life.

Against medical advice, Jamison went off lithium several times, sometimes to get away from the side effects, and others related to her own rejection of her diagnosis. It was in one of these events and during a severe depressive episode that Jamison has a suicide attempt, in which she takes an overdose of lithium. Her attempt was deterred by a phone call from her brother, who finds her semi-alert and slurring and calls for help. After this, Jamison describes the number of people in her life that resolved to keep and eye and take care of her during her episodes, including her mother, brother and friends. Months after her suicide attempt, Jamison founds the Affective Disorders Clinic and applies for tenure at UCLA, which is granted.

Part 3: This Medicine, Love
Jamison narrates major events in her romantic life. After the end of her first marriage, she falls in love and starts dating a man named David, a british psychiatrist with the Army Medical Corps. After spending a few days together where she lived in L.A., they spend several weeks in London which made her "remember how important love is to life". David was to her always loving, kind, and reassuring, and Jamison admits to enjoying life like she hadn't for years. After she returns to LA, David is posted to an army hospital in Hong Kong, where he plans for her to meet him. Before this can happen, however, a diplomatic courier comes to her house with the news that David had died of a massive heart attack while in duty. Jamison retells her months of grief about David's death, from feeling numb and detached during the funeral in London at first, to breaking down in the British Airways counter when they asked her the reason of her visit, to being able to remember David with fondness without regretting the future they'd lost.

Once back home, Jamison has an adjustment to her lithium levels, which greatly diminished the side effects without removing its effectiveness against the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Some time after, she meets Richard Wyatt, the man that would become her second husband and with whom she shares a more "opposites attract" relationship, which lead to a rapidly evolving relationship that led her to leave her tenure position at UCLA to live in Washington with him.

Part 4: An Unquiet Mind
Jamison talks about the renaming of her disease from manic-depressive illness to bipolar disorder, and rebels against the change, arguing that the new name is not descriptive enough of the disease and suggests a separation between depression and manic-depressive illness which is not always clear or accurate.

She tells her account of witnessing the first evidence of a genetic component to bipolar disease, and sitting with Jim Watson talking about mood disorders and family trees. After this genetic connection is made, Jamison talks about her struggle with her desire to have children and the professional recommendation of her physician to not have any because of her disease. Jamison calls not having her own children "the single most intolerable regret of [her] life", but describes her relationship with her niece and nephew and how she enjoys it.

In her new life in Washington, Jamison starts working in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. She is apprehensive to disclose her illness to her new coworkers but does so to not jeopardize the care of her patients and make her superiors aware of the legal risk. Despite her fears, she describes being very accepted and supported in her work environment in Hopkins, well as maintaining an optimistic view of the future of her illness.

Illness
The book is entirely comprised of Jamison's experience dealing with bipolar disorder, and how it has affected all areas of her life. She details her illness as related to every aspect of her and her worldview. Jamison describes her manic and depressive episodes, from the mildest to the most severe, and shows just how all encompassing a disease like bipolar disorder can be.

Relationships
Jamison says in her book that "[she] conceived it as a book of moods, (...) As I have written it, however, it has somehow turned out to be very much a book about love (...)". In her book she highlights how important it was for her to have a support system that dedicated themselves to take care of her and see her through her manic and depressive episodes. From the difference in values that led her to be estranged from her sister to the support that brought her closer to her mother, brother, and eventually lovers, Jamison talks about the difficulty of maintaining relationships

Vulnerability
Throughout the book, Jamison highlights the fear that comes with talking about her illness to new people she meets, both in her personal and professional life. She expresses the vulnerability that disclosing her illness so publicly required, but how she had "no question of going back".

Restrictions because of illness
Jamison talks about the struggle of many people, including doctors, telling her that she should not have children because of her disease, despite that being one of her dreams.

Professional ambition and impostor syndrome
Jamison highlights her fear that all of her professional and academic accomplishments would be undermined if she were to reveal that she had bipolar disorder. However, in her book she refers to hiding behind a degree, or a title as dishonest. She describes her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, where her illness could be just another reason to undermine her, and how she was able to make progress at UCLA and Johns Hopkins, her two major employers, unimpeded by her disease. She dedicated her life to doing research about moods and bipolar disorder, inspired by her own experience, and to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and good treatments.

Struggle with diagnosis
Jamison talks about a problem that many people face when diagnosed with a chronic illness which is denial. She expresses that for many years she refused to believe that she was ill, and also refused to do anything about it, including taking her medication regularly, because of the belief that her "moods" are something that she should be able to control.

Reception
The book received a widely positive reception, with Dr. Jamison being praised for her bravery and celebrated to her work to abolish stigma surrounding mental illness. Redfield continuously receives letter from readers who ask her about her experience and recommendations on doctors and medications.

In 2009, Melody Moezzi, an Iranian-American attorney who was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, reviewed An Unquiet Mind as part of the in National Public Radio's website. She described the memoir as "the most brilliant and brutally honest book I've ever read about bipolar disorder". Moezzi celebrated how the book represented that "an unquiet mind need not be a deficient one".

A 2011 post in The Guardian held that An Unquiet Mind has been unrivaled since its publication in its honesty about life with bipolar disorder.

Publication History
The book was originally published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in New York and reprinted by Vintage Books in paperback in 1997.