Quotes by Kay Redfield Jamison

About Kay Redfield Jamison:

Kay Redfield Jamison is 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.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological i...

Kay Redfield Jamison

I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary o...

Kay Redfield Jamison

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.

Kay Redfield Jamison

I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the best I have been, which is when I have been midly manic. When I am my present "normal" self, I am far removed from when I have been my li...

Kay Redfield Jamison

But money spent while manic doesn't fit into the Internal Revenue Service concept of medical expense or business loss. So after mania, when most depressed, you're given excellent reason to be even more so.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Composure and self-restraint were not only desirable characteristics in a woman, they were essental. As my mother put it later, it was bad enough having to worry yourself sick every time your husband went up in an airplane; now, she was being told, s...

Kay Redfield Jamison

One of the advantages of science is that one's work, ultimately, is either replicated or it is not.

Kay Redfield Jamison

He thought of women in terms of breasts, not minds, and it always seemed to irritate him that most women had both.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Far too many doctors-many of them excellent physicians-commit suicide each year; one recent study concluded that, until quite recently, the United States lost annually the equivalent of a medium-sized medical school class from suicide alone. Most phy...

Kay Redfield Jamison

Never once, during any of my bouts of depression, had I been inclined or able to pick up a telephone and ask a friend for help. It wasn't in me.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Mood disorders are terribly painful illnesses, and they are isolating illnesses. And they make people feel terrible about themselves when, in fact, they can be treated.

Kay Redfield Jamison

One of things so bad about depression and bipolar disorder is that if you don't have prior awareness, you don't have any idea what hit you.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Grief comes and goes, but depression is unremitting.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Moods are complicated and very much a part of who we are. People would be very boring without them.

Kay Redfield Jamison

There are a lot of studies that suggest a higher rate of creativity in bipolars than the general population.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Because I teach and write about depression and bipolar illness, I am often asked what is the most important factor in treating bipolar disorder. My answer is competence. Empathy is important, but competence is essential.

Kay Redfield Jamison

I say I'm an academic: a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. And I write.

Kay Redfield Jamison

'An Unquiet Mind' wasn't hard to write in terms of the actual writing of it.

Kay Redfield Jamison

I am one of millions who have been treated for depression and gotten well; I was lucky enough to have a psychiatrist well versed in using lithium and knowledgeable about my illness, and who was also an excellent psychotherapist.

Kay Redfield Jamison

We expect well-informed treatment for cancer or heart disease; it matters no less for depression.

Kay Redfield Jamison

There are scientists all around the world looking for the genes responsible for bipolar illness and major depression.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Author Bio

  • NameKay Redfield Jamison
  • DescriptionAmerican bipolar disorder researcher
  • BornJune 22, 1946
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPsychiatrist; Essayist; Psychologist; Author
  • AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program