A Book Review: Kay Redfield Jamison's "An Unquiet Mind"
By Esmeralda Cornelio
What if you had the power to undo your life-long illness? Would you choose to be born without physical limits and free from the misery associated with a myriad of traumas? Would you not neatly erase all the ugliness from life, if you could? Or perhaps you would be brave and simply choose to embrace all the uncertainty and anguish of such an illness, calling it a gift from an All-Knowing God.
An Unquiet Mind looks at these questions. Kay Redfield Jamison's book is at once a beautiful memoir, a practical book on mental illness, and a book on the philosophy of suffering. It manages to be honest and gentle and encouraging while avoiding the pat answers sufferers are loath to hear from strangers and friends alike. Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, writes in first person, describing her life-long struggle with mental illness. She likens her mental illness to a dragon, which she must see as beautiful before she can conquer it. In the book are chronicles of the medical symptoms of manias she experienced when she was untreated. Some of these she describes as dreadful hallucinations, not unlike a drug-altered state. She also describes piercing depressions that were so low she considered suicide, pits requiring an uphill battle from which to ascend.
Having been diagnosed with the illness in high school, the author presents to the reader the experience of losing one's mind. First, she had to battle her own thoughts on having to take medication. The very pills that could make her well also had awful side effects. She relays her experience of struggling with whether or not to disclose her illness. Jamison describes the conflict she felt during her medical board exams when asked if she had a medical condition that could affect her post. She has struggled with these questions: Should one disclose one's mental illness to a friend? To a romantic interest? To a prospective employer? She documents carefully efforts one must take as a person with mental illness to protect oneself from the bias society still has against mentally ill persons.
The book is also about triumph. It is not a somber read. The author is a fiery, gutsy woman who is both intelligent and funny and seems intent on using her life as a gift. Today the author is an experienced psychotherapist, a professor of psychiatry, and a co-author of a textbook on mental illness. An Unquiet Mind demonstrates that the dragons of our lives, if considered as gifts, can actually be agents of change and growth in our lives. Many a crashing wave has softened an unkind spirit if it is wisely embraced as a friend. Our losses and infirmities can also be tools of love and compassion in other people's lives.
An Unquiet Mind shows how utterly weak we are. Current events have uncovered our vulnerabilities. We do not have to pretend to be strong all the time. The Bible says we are "but dust." On our own, we really are without the ability to make life neat and tidy. The author does not claim to be a Christian in this book. However, this message still points the way to God Almighty. Is it not like God to use anyone He wishes to make His point?
For me the message of An Unquiet Mind is that God is the all-seeing, beautiful one who cares for us when we are beyond the limits of our intellect, health, and security. The author calls the force in her life love. But we know who He is. We are helpless in His hands, and that is the best place to be.
