This is a favorite topic of hers. The book then moves rapidly, somewhat clinically if poetically and literately, through the stages of the author's life, her lifelong battle with her illness and her emergence as a mentally ill person with a Ph.D. in psychology, co-author of a standard text book on manic depression, recognized scholar in the academic world, and tenured professor at Johns Hopkins University. Jamison emerges from her struggles with manic depression as a woman with a love of the arts and poetry, with more than a fair share of romantic liaisons, and a marriage now going into its second decade. Unfortunately and disappointingly, she does not describe what kind of therapy she has undergone. Perhaps she will write another popular book whose focus is on the various therapies which have been scientifically examined and which have been proven effective, along with pharmacological treatment, for various forms of mental illness.
Manic depression is a horrible disease.
The horrors of years spent wishing you were dead, incapable of getting out of bed or reading a newspaper, of withdrawal from friends and family, of fear of meeting anyone, and of trying to kill yourself, are documented, as are the years of euphoric sexual energy, creativity, productivity, wild spending sprees, of friends and family withdrawing from you, of inexpressible joy at feeling high and mighty, consumed by incomprehensible thoughts and doomed to absurd behavior. But with medication and therapy, a good deal of control over your life is possible. With treatment from the right kind of physician and therapist, these fears are unwarranted. Good medicine and good therapy can give a person control over his or her life, not take it away. Of all Jamison's messages, I think this is the most important one.