Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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170 of 183 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exuberance for the living, September 30, 2004
This is a brilliant woman who has written another brilliant book. If you have come to the conclusion that I like this book you are right.
First, even the idea to study exuberance took courage. The author has previously written about her own fierce battles with manic depression. She is a serious scientist that risked her reputation to expose that side of herself before and now she has written a book that explores emotions perilously close to the up side of her illness. Admitting that she admires the emotion, given her prior disclosure of manic depression, is fraught with special risk for Dr. Jamison. While the positive emotions are understudied, this provides an admitted manic depressive with little cover. Many a depressive has gone off of their medication because of the claimed attractiveness of the manic state.
Dr, Jamison neatly traverses this difficult terrain by keeping her attention focused on others. Early in the book she concentrates her energy on President Theodore Roosevelt. Exuberance is probably the word most used to describe his personality, but still she probes deeper and uncovers insights that have eluded even gifted biographers of this fascinating man. If you are interested in what made TR tick you should read this book.
If you have read Dr. Jamison before you expect such penetrating insights, but even though I have read all of her general works I was unprepared for the beauty of expression, both hers and of many quotations both shrewd and charming that adorn the text and advance her thought.
One of each: "Joy lacks the gravitas that suffering so effortlessly commands." Jamison at 5; "The Greeks understood the mysterious power of the hidden side of things. They bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language - the word `enthusiasm' - en theos - a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who hears a god within, and who obeys it." Louis Pasteur, same page. It is rare indeed to be reading a serious work and find yourself saying, "Wow."
I will close this review of a serious work that has offered me insights into a favorite historical figure as well as my children by another quote only slightly changed: (Kay Jamison Jamison's book on exuberance recounts) "a magnificent obsession, plumb-line true and enduring." at 39. When you finish reading this wonderful book you will wonder as I did how it could have been researched and written as her beloved husband lay dying. Only a woman who realized to her core that life is a savage beauty could bear such witness to joy in the midst of such pain. Read this book.
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49 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Tragedy of Exuberance., September 24, 2006
_Exuberance: The Passion for Life_ by psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison is a fairly interesting account of individuals who have exhibited a distinctive zest for living as revealed in their activities and work. Those who are prone to excessive enthusiasm, gregariousness, and creative insight are discussed by the author, who attempts to show what it is that uniquely determines this trait. While much of the writing in this book is beautiful, it must be pointed out that exuberance is not without its pitfalls. At times enthusiasm may overcome reason leading to unusual, eccentric, or even dangerous behavior, perhaps best illustrated in literature by the case of Toad from the book _The Wind in the Willows_ by Kenneth Grahame. And, often behind the personalities of exuberant individuals there lurks a darker side of irritability, depression, and despondency. Cases of collective exuberance include stock market booms and the battle lust exhibited by some soldiers during combat. However, as anyone quickly realizes both of these have their downside and can be highly destructive. In addition, exuberance often makes it difficult to interact with others. As the author explains, exuberance tends to be a trait that an individual either has or they don't. Those who lack this trait may become jealous of or annoyed with those who possess it in abundance. In the life of great scientists, the case of the physicist Richard Feynman provides an illustration of this. While he exhibited great exuberance in his teaching style, he often left students who could not keep up or who possessed a more placid personality completely alienated. Feynman himself seems to have understood this at times, and the author quotes one of his remarks to the effect that perhaps his style served only the purpose of amusing himself.
This book for me in many ways was a great temptation.
For many years I felt like much of what is described in this book. I was intensely enthuasiastic, curious, fascinated by detail, completely immersed in thoughts and ideas, and at times experiencing an almost mystical sort of communion with the world and nature. Then one day something happened. I began to realize that not everyone had these feelings and this zest for life, and that what was worse is that many resented me because I did. Things started to bother me more, I began to feel profoundly alienated, and feelings of distress and anxiety welled up inside of me. Little by little I was exhausting myself. As it turned out I became severely depressed, and it took a long while before I felt close to normal again.
I still sometimes have these feelings again, but I have learned now to keep them to myself. And this is the tragedy of exuberance. For every up side there is a down side.
The author Kay Jamison is perhaps best known for her research on and theories of manic depression. She herself is a sufferer from a rather severe form of this illness. And in this book, she attempts to link the more extreme forms of exuberance to mania. Exuberance may be seen on a continuum, in its milder forms it may involve an excess of enthusiasm, gregariousness, creativity, and perhaps even religious and mystical feelings. However, in excess exuberance may overcome reason and commonsense. It is in the form of hypomania and mania where excesses of exuberance prove most severe. And often lurking behind this great excess of feeling lies irritability, paranoia, and eventually depression. Perhaps most interesting in this regard is Jamison's discussion of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, himself plagued by wild changes in mood, who wrote on the dual nature of man, perhaps most famously in his account of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this story, Stevenson revealed the conflict within man between his better nature and his shadow, darker self. This conflict may be observed in those individuals who exhibit exuberance at its most extreme. My one fault with Jamison's analysis is that she seems to restrict exuberance to extraverted individuals, and this restriction to me seems unwarranted. While extraverts may seem the natural sort to experience feelings of exuberance, I certainly believe that it is possible to have an introverted sort of exuberance (one allied perhaps with mysticism or scientific creativity and discovery). In addition, while the author mostly focuses on scientists and a few "eccentrics" and observers of nature, many scientists look down upon those who are exuberant, finding them lacking in the proper degree of objectivity, skepticism, and rigor necessary for the scientific endeavor. Indeed, an entire movement exists in the sciences that seeks to move away from any sort of cosmic, pantheistic, or mystical feelings of awe associated with nature towards a more brute materialism. Within the field of religion a similar thing exists, with many religious looking down on mystics.
Finally, I must add that my major problem with this book as with all Kay Jamison's books is her tendency to romanticize suffering and mental illness. She seems to associate certain personality traits with high social status, something I find particularly noxious. What is worse, she seems to associate mental illness, particularly manic depression, with high social status, creativity, and genius. Not only does this re-inforce stereotypes, but also it entirely overlooks the fact of the many individuals who suffer from this illness in silence and alone, never to achieve any social status whatsoever. Jamison never really seems to face fully on the darker more destructive side of things. And this leaves her almost oblivious to the social issues raised by mental illness. As with all her books, this one is really written for the high IQ, highly socially connected manic; however, Jamison never really seems to consider the fact that there are many who suffer in silence who are not so blessed.
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62 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
earnestly but not rigorously written, November 28, 2004
Kay Redfield Jamison, who has written with grit and integrity about her battle with bipolar disorder, has authored a new book about joy, passion, and playfulness in life and work. She's done her research, and in these pages many people speak about what makes them spring from their beds in the morning.
Her interviews with scientists in various fields, from astronomers to physicists to zoologists, are especially enlightening and give the reader a notion of how many scientists view their work as a kind of play. My husband, a cloud physicist, could strongly identify with descriptions of the joy that fuels their long hours in the observatory, lab, or field.
Jamison earnestly discusses exuberance, confidence, optimism, and energy, and relates how, from the earliest age, it's fairly easy for an observer to identify the temperament of a child. She correlates exuberance with the extroverted temperaments. (Introverted, sensitive types reading this book are liable to become saddened as they realize it's harder for them to join the party!)
Jamison, taken in by the high-spirited ones among us, fails to recognize the "downside". For example, in some cases, there is a predilection for short-lived and ultimately, unproductive interests; in others, impatience, zealousness, and a kind of imperialism that runs roughshod over other people.
Each temperament has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. While living "exuberantly" may be a wonderful goal, those who are naturally energetic, strong, and confident, have flaws like those described above. Ask my husband or children!
In a previous work, Jamison has described the awe she felt when she looked at computer-generated pictures of her own brain, lighting up and darkening in affected areas. Revealing the circuitry of the brain has aided the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It is within the range of possibility that someday, a person's temperament will be revealed in the same manner, and the
heritability of temperament will be scientifically established.
(Mothers through the ages have been aware that their children's natures differed, even in the womb. Some are active and strongly kicking; others are placid and slower-moving.)
St. Irenaeus wrote many centuries ago, "God's glory is man fully alive." Living passionately, with joy and with wonder, is certainly a goal for all of us. How that passion, joy, and wonder will be manifested, will vary as do people's natures. As a Catholic, I am amazed at the enormous variations in the lives and personalities of the saints. Exuberance belongs to all God's children, not just the extroverted, active ones. Jamison's book gets only four stars from this reviewer because she failed to appreciate this simple truth.
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