An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Mania, Depression, and Madness Author: Kay Redfield Jamison Publication Date: 2008 Publisher: Dar Al Saqi Number of Pages: 239 Format: Paperback This is not a review; rather, it is a deeply personal writing* *Documenting my feelings only, towards a book that combined emotions, science, illness, and its treatment with medicine and love in an extremely wonderful and beautiful way, with an artist's touch. This book is about love of the first degree, and it was written with all love. A memoir of a doctor, a scientist, and a deeply ingrained human being, saturated with love, warmth, and vitality to the point of infusing them into every detail of her life and every word of her writings.. For almost a full month, it accompanied me through my moods, my depressions, my existential questions and inquiries. I devoured it at first, then I started reading it slowly, fearing to part with it and finish it.. And when its pages ran out and its words ended, I did not finish it, and its impact within me will not end.. My only consolation now is that it will remain one of the defining and influential landmarks in my life in all its lines! I will return to it again and again, and I will definitely acquire both its original and translated versions, and I will recommend it to everyone I love and will love.. And until then, perhaps I will have written a lot about it! And finally; Thank God that this book was placed in my path :'" Kay Redfield Jamison chose to write... to break the veils of silence, and to declare publicly what many try to hide... for fear of the gaze of society, employers, and family... But Kay wanted her suffering to have another dimension, for that experience to be beneficial to those in a similar situation. Kay tells her story with all boldness, courage, and honesty... about her diagnosis of (manic-depressive psychosis) or (bipolar disorder), and her undergoing psychiatric treatment. Kay is not an ordinary person because she narrates her journey with a disease she specializes in treating; she is a psychologist and an expert in treating the very same illness... which resulted in a unique nature to her suffering... and great challenges facing her. Kay recounts the details of her life from when she was an ordinary child and the transformations she went through to later realize her illness, her struggle with it, and the effects of the treatment she cannot do without, despite its side effects, so as not to reach the abyss and suffer from madness or commit suicide. With transparent, beautiful language, and realism stemming from an unquiet mind, the book gained an emotional dimension... in which she poured many of her feelings and her inner monologue... to present to us clearly a model of someone with this dangerous illness and how she managed to overcome her ordeal and deal with it in order to preserve her life, and even continue with increasing success, and qualify herself to become a consultant in the same disease she suffers from.