Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament Paperback – October 18, 1996

This is a great read expressing reference to the great artist and genius minds of people with manic-depressive illness. The expression of the arts allows the person with manic-depression to express and create. The mind is constant in suffering, understanding, and finding a need to be creative with expression. Manic-depression is greatly misunderstood. The mind may be lacking in certain chemicals, but in intelligence and talent the gifts are profound. I enjoy realizing some of the greatest artist and world famous people suffered from the same illness I have. I have had the pleasure of meeting the late Patty Duke an advocate for mental health, and Mariel Hemingway. I seek out books expressing mental health, and the positive influences of people. Also, the real struggles and stories of people and the family who try to hard to understand mental health. Thank you for bringing a positive light to the greatness of this disease. I would recommend this book.

Few authors can address the delicate points of mental illness with such wisdom and discretion. Manic-Depressive Illness (Bipolar Disorder I) is a terribly difficult illness to explain to those who have not had close contact with those afflicted. You are not simply on a see-saw emotionally but can experience dysphoric periods of mixed depressive and manic symptoms. With the increasing parallels between Bipolar Disorder and the Schizophrenia spectrum disorders it has even been given a place outside of the Mood Disorders category.

Touched with Fire was written long ago, it seems, but reaches even further into the past to examine the unique place Manic-Depression has had throughout history in an objective manner. One of the keys is that Dr. Jamison addresses the taboo subject of Mania having 'beneficial' effects along with detrimental ones. The nature of the illness is also one that causes the afflicted to occasionally rise to prominence due to the properties of the manic state where they may not have had the momentum and 'fire' were they not of the afflicted.

This topic is personal for me, but there is a truly worldwide audience for this book; it's not just those directly touched by Bipolar Disorder who should pay attention. If history was shaped, in part, by a certain brain phenomenon still shifting its position in the diagnostic world, there should be curiosity kindled and research amped up. If those who can't help but dissect the brains of serial killers and gaze at the physical totem of Einstein's own were to return to a state of wonder at this ailment that gives and takes brilliance than perhaps the diagnostic system for mental illness might get a much-needed reboot.

For anyone who wrestles with Bi-polar disease or mood disorders, this is a wonderful source that shares research about some of our most creative writers, composers, creative geniuses and the "down side" of that genius. They wrestled with deep depression and mania which led many into asylums during and at the end of life. It confirms the struggles of mood instabilities. The gifts that are born in a space where most persons do not go and the deep cavernous black holes where no one wants to go.

In an amazingly thorough and critical exploration, Jamison reveals the relationship between mood disorders and artistic expression. The book leaves out the textbook-like jargon but is assembled like an intelligent albeit lengthy essay. She uses several concrete examples to share her findings such as excerpts from biographies, letters, and most importantly poems. She often quotes famous poets and authors in portraying their affect and how it shapes their work. Definitely a book to read for someone interesting in mood disorders and poetry... Very moving, informative, and connected; Jamison knows her stuff. Also check out An Unquiet Mind

Who is this, who is this in the night of the heart?
It is the thing that is not reached,
the ghost seen by the soul...
~Sorley MacLean

Touched with Fire reveals its secrets in startling revelations and comforting commentary. Throughout this brilliant work, Kay Redfield Jamison exhibits an insightful and calmly observant approach in the midst of manic-depressive complexity.

She explores the reasons artists, writers, and composers are often fearful of the dampening of creativity through the use of chemicals like lithium. Although she often notes the tendency towards various addictions artists use to escape the erratic nature of mood disorders.

The creative temperament seems to feed off emotional turmoil and often in the works of great poets we can feel the soul's turbulence. The reality of heightened imaginative powers, depression, insomnia, fatigue, rapid thoughts, inflated self-esteem, panic attacks, rage and emotional intensity of various varieties can all swim about in an ocean of ever changing periods of heightened creativity and suicidal tendencies. Within this ocean, brilliance is often born and fed by the storms raging in artist's minds.

For the most part the author explains how many can life a normal life, yet as we read the descriptions and excerpts, we soon realize many danced too close to the cliff of despair and became a danger to themselves. Kay Redfield Jamison presents sweeping overviews of many authors and then delves into individual experience. She uncovers the lives of Robert Schumann, Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh, Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

According to the author and extensive analysis of current research, moody musicians, volatile poets and troubled artists may in fact be bipolar. This theory is explored in depth with over one-third of the book dedicated to cataloging the researcher's sources.

There is much to learn here, like the difference between cyclothymia and manic-depressive illness. Some of the artists heal themselves through artistic expression, especially in May if they don't commit suicide in the same month. Others produce more writing in autumn.

Poetry led me by the hand out of madness. ~Anne Sexton

As the lives of numerous mercurial writers are explored, a common thread of creativity weaves itself into a blanket of madness which seems to seek to suffocate its victims with torturous emotions and dark nights of the soul.

This then becomes a fascinating and intellectual read for anyone who has an interest in writing, poetry, psychiatry or the artistic temperament. If you write poetry or enjoy writing in general, this book could be most revealing and will explain why at times you might stay awake for 24 hours writing like mad and then have absolutely no desire to write for weeks at a time. While the author focuses on more extreme cases of bipolar disorder, she does give hope to the world by explaining that many who have bipolar disorder do mostly live normal lives. If you can call being on an eternal rollercoaster of intense emotions normal or even bearable throughout an entire life.

While people who are bipolar may have periods when they feel absolutely fine, there is always the fear of the unknown, the dark night that is again fast approaching. After reading this book you will understand authors like Dorothy Parker and Virginia Woolf in a new light even though the author doesn't mention Parker.

~The Rebecca Review