Kay Redfield Jamison
Kay Redfield Jamison
Kay Redfield Jamisonis an American clinical psychologist and writer. Her work has centered on bipolar disorder, which she has had since her early adulthood. She holds a post of Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth22 June 1946
CountryUnited States of America
bad books convinced cool doctors experience graduate impress intense learned sort students teach
An intense temperament has convinced me to teach not only from books but from what I have learned from experience. So I try to impress upon young doctors and graduate students that tumultuousness, if coupled to discipline and a cool mind, is not such a bad sort of thing.
suicidal brain mind
The quickness and flexibility of a well mind, a belief or hope that things will eventually sort themselves out-these are the resources lost to a person when the brain is ill.
numbness despair wish
I wish I could explain it so someone could understand it. I'm afraid it's something I can't put into words. There's just this heavy, overwhelming despair - dreading everything. Dreading life. Empty inside, to the point of numbness. It's like there's something already dead inside. My whole being has been pulling back into that void for months. (81)
bereavement want goes-on
I realized that it was not that I didn’t want to go on without him. I did. It was just that I didn’t know why I wanted to go on
titles degrees dishonesty
One is what one is, and the dishonesty of hiding behind a degree, or a title, or any manner and collection of words, is still exactly that: dishonest.
favors ancient reason
The ancient dialogue between reason and the senses is almost always more interestingly and passionately resolved in favor of the senses.
insane attractive periods
Mania can be as terrifying as it gets. It is certainly as insane as one gets and so it's frightening when it gets out of control, but there are periods of mania when it can be extremely attractive.
psychosis violence illness
Once a restless or frayed mood has turned to anger, or violence, or psychosis, Richard, like most, finds it very difficult to see it as illness, rather than being willful, angry, irrational or simply tiresome.
vulnerable temperament ardent
An ardent temperament makes one very vulnerable to dreamkillers.
substance essentials behavior
Moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable, reactions to what life has dealt.
self-esteem sleep thinking
Who would not want an illness that has among its symptoms elevated and expansive mood, inflated self-esteem, abundance of energy, less need for sleep, intensified sexuality, and- most germane to our argument here-"sharpened and unusually creative thinking" and "increased productivity"?
social-values ancient confidentiality
Confidentiality is an ancient and well-warranted social value.
human
With grief, you have reason to despair; it's a human thing.
believe bipolar combined compliance critical longer major medication patients remains work
Lithium remains the gold standard, but many drugs now treat bipolar disorder. Medication is critical and should be combined with psychotherapy. Compliance is a major problem. Patients believe that once they're better, they no longer need the medication. It doesn't work that way.