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An Unquiet Mind

A Memoir of Moods and Madness

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An Unquiet Mind

Written by: Kay Redfield Jamison
Narrated by: Kay Redfield Jamison
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Buy Now for ₹377.00

Buy Now for ₹377.00

About this listen

 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A deeply powerful memoir about bipolar illness that has both transformed and saved lives—with a new preface by the author.

Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.

Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication.©1995 Kay Redfield Jamison; (P)2010 Random House
 Medical Mental Health Mood Disorders Professionals & Academics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Self-Help
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Such a heartfelt memoir. It feels like she's sitting in front and talking to you live. Midway the book it feels like you can witness her episodes that she mentions. I deeply felt the pain she might be going through, and equally the reliefs, hope that she gets in the good turns of life. Despite all the trauma and sadness the book doesn't leave me with tears, because the end note is that of gratitude, even for the illness. I'm more happy because not for a second I had the feeling of sympathy, it was more of compassion, strength and gratitude.

🙂

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Her story is one of strength, determination and perseverance and she narrates it beautifully. In this three-hour monologue, she goes into the depths of her being to talk about the innumerous trials and challenges that she faced on the journey to her research ambitions--which culminated into a faculty position at a premier university. I especially enjoy the choice of words and metaphors that the “mind/brain business” people use to describe the works of the brain, reactions, situations and circumstances in life. Kay’s prose is likewise, delicious in that respect.

Can’t recommend enough. I don’t even want to return this copy!

Splendid

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An Unquiet Mind
is incredibly honest, insightful and incredible.

Jamison has put bare emotions in words and being an author my self, I know how courageous it is to put emotions to words and publish it as a book, that too about manic depressive illness and mood disorders, I am sure the book requires unimaginable courage.

I would like to take an opportunity to thank Jamison as her book has become torch bearer and is saving lives, providing much needed insights and also inspiring readers like me to share our tale in form of a memoir one fine day.

“But if you have had stars at your feet and the rings of the plans through your hands, it is a very real adjustment to blend into a 3 piece suit schedule.”
- Kay Redfield Jamison

Honest, Insightful and Incredible

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Touching portrayal of bipolar depression—and I’m saying that as a raving bipolar myself, the card-carrying, sleep-destroying, thought-accelerating, gravity-defying kind who knows exactly how seductive mania feels and how leaden depression gets—**The Unquiet Mind** works on Audible in a way that feels almost indecently intimate, because listening strips away the academic buffer and leaves you alone with a voice that knows the illness from both sides of the desk.

This is not the Instagram version of bipolar, not the plucky resilience narrative, not the tidy arc from diagnosis to enlightenment. It’s the long, grinding negotiation with lithium, denial, ego, fear, and that awful private knowledge that part of you actually misses the fire even as it keeps burning your life down. Jamison’s dual identity—as psychiatrist and patient—doesn’t make the book safer or more authoritative; it makes it sharper and more unsettling, because she understands the machinery of the mind even while it’s chewing her up, and there’s nowhere to hide from that contradiction.

In audio, the manic passages don’t scream; they glide and persuade, the way mania really does when it’s convincing you that you are finally, mercifully, yourself. The depressive stretches don’t dramatize despair; they sit there, dense and immovable, like time itself has thickened. As someone who lives inside that oscillation, I found myself nodding along in recognition more often than comfort allows.

This isn’t a book about winning, or curing, or even recovering in the heroic sense. It’s about learning how to live with a mind that cannot always be trusted, including by the person who understands it best. For listeners who want honesty rather than inspiration—and especially for those of us who know this terrain from the inside—this audiobook feels less like content and more like a quiet, unsettling act of recognition.

Touching portrayal of bipolar depression

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This book is a memoir about a bipolar disorder survivor. I have been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was deliberately searching for people who have survived this mood disorder.
Kay is a true warrior and I felt sitting next to her while I listened to her narration. I burst out into tears when I learnt this disorder is hereditary. She is very honest about the narration of love couldn't cure this madness but it acts a medicine to manage it. Still I have unanswered questions whirling in my mind as I am currently in a depressive episode. I would definitely listen to her more often because her story gives me a hope that I am not alone and I could survive admist of all the hardships. Kay , you are a warrior to look upon.

A Person to look upon

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