An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

In Touched with Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatrist, turned a mirror on the creativity so often associated with mental illness. In this book she turns that mirror on herself. With breathtaking honesty she tells of her own manic depression, the bitter costs of her illness, and its paradoxical benefits: "There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness and terror involved in this kind of madness.... It will never end, for madness carves its own reality." This is one of the best scientific autobiographies ever written, a combination of clarity, truth, and insight into human character. "We are all, as Byron put it, differently organized," Jamison writes. "We each move within the restraints of our temperament and live up only partially to its possibilities." Jamison's ability to live fully within her limitations is an inspiration to her fellow mortals, whatever our particular burdens may be. --Mary Ellen Curtin

• Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
• The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
• Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner (The New Harbinger Loving Someone Series)
• Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
• The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide, Third Edition: What You and Your Family Need to Know
• Mad Like Me: Travels in Bipolar Country
• Madness: A Bipolar Life
• What Grieving People Wish You Knew about What Really Helps (and What Really Hurts)
• Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability
• The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness