Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament

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 d

More and more what we seem to find is that the world is not so much populated by a sea of 'normal' people among whom there stand out a few with 'disorders,' but in fact that there are millions of subtle and not-so-subtle varriations on how each persons mind works. These varriations cumulatively produce each unique individual, but since when did being diferent constitute an illness. The more closely that we look at these "illness", the more we will begin to see that they are just different ways of seeing the world.The symptoms of some of these differences, though, can be very dark, serrious, and destructive. It is not something to be romantacized. Some people have been critical of this book, either for not producing difinitive conclusions, or for not providing suficient hope for those struggling with Manic Depression (Bi-Polar Affective Disorder). These points, however, could well constitute the book's greatest strengths, not its weaknesses.Firstly, one should look honestly at the criticism that it does not provide hope for those struggling with Manic Depression. Hope is certainly an important thing to have, however, it is important that that hope be real. A false hope will only hurt people more when it ultimately colapses in the face of reality. If you are looking for encouragement that Lithium is a drug without side-effects, that can ease symptoms without having any other less desirable repercussions, then you are not being honest with yourself, and you are only setting yourself up with false expectations, and once those fail, you will only be further entrenched in what Jamison calls "the war on treatment."I have known a number of people with Manic Depression, and even some who were on Lithium. If you understand honestly both the good and the bad, with out the rose-tinted glasses of hollow and superficial optimisim, then you will be better equipped emotionaly to deal with the serrious buisness of getting in control of your life - it's not always fun, and anyone who tells you it is (a la sacrine and contrite books like Chicken Soup for the Soul) is actualy doing you more harm than good.Fortunately, Jamison avoids this by writting a straight forward book, and by not feeling pressured to produce truths that no one can know for sure. Some of my friends felt that this book was inconclusive,or that it only served to state the obvious. However, that is perhaps what makes this one of the best books on both the subject of the arts, and on the psychology of Manic Depression. The truth is that, although it would be nice to say that Manic Depression can or cannot be cured by love or faith, or that all cases of Manic Depression clearly need to be medicated, or that all brilliant artists suffer from a simple (or not so simple) mood disorder, these answers are really too easy. They are blanket statements that miss the subtle differences that make our world so interesting, and our minds each so unique.Rather than being tempted to provide these comforting if pre

Ok...let's get some things straight right off the bat. This book by Jamison is NOT a book meant for the easy reading of those who are trying to find out more about bipolar disease (whether or not they are merely curious or actually have been diagnosed with it themselves!). This book is an excellent qualitative case studies argument for professionals and peers (in education, in psychology, in neuroscience, in the art world, etc.) who would like to further delve into the long-circulated theory that those blessed with creative abilities are often cursed with manic-depressive (bipolar disorder). Those lay people who merely want confirmation of their illness (or that of a family member) are going to be in for an incredible disappointment if they 'get' this book. It was never intended to be a self-help diary, no matter what Jamison's previous books on bipolar have been like.Next...Jamison makes an excellent case for the link between bipolar disorder and creativity. The methodology she uses tends to be dependent upon case studies of particular artists and the information available from their own writings as well as their family backgrounds and family lineage. It is a well-known fact that many of the psychiatric disorders have both a genetic and an environmental component. Jamison obviously is learned enough and has enough background in neuroscience and psychiatry, to be able to tie the information often gleaned separately in these fields, together in a more comprehensive whole. No, Jamison does not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the concept that many writers/artists are plagued by bipolararity...but she sure makes a heck of a case for the previously surmised existence of a link! Her science information is impeccable, given what is known now at this particular time concerning manic-depression and the brain. In spite of having to use historical accounts and letters of family members, the artists themselves, and those in direct contact with these people...Jamison's analysis of their work and art, in conjunction with that historical writing, and using what is known now about this particular disorder in the brain is an phenomenal act of intelligent and scholarly writing. And it is well-written and not typical-boring textbook (or 'let's-slap-ourselves-on-the-back-in-congratulatory' professorial type) either! That's high praise on my part, since I cannot abide professors who pander their own writing (whether textbooks or journals) or write to their colleagues in as hard-to-understand professional jargon as possible, and then demand their poor students attempt to make sense of it (as well as line the professors pockets!) Cynical, aren't I?I had seen and heard of Jamison's work before, but this was the first opportunity I had had to pick up one of her books. Since having not only two artistic grandfathers (one of whom fit the mold of those in this book) as well as having a good per cent of my own family history done (and being linked to some very famous depres

I don't think Dr. jamison did anything irresponsable here. Nor did I find her grasping at scientific straws as I've heard it implied. My sister who read the book brought up the concern that I read here several times, which is, how did Dr. Jamison know these ppl were bipolar? She never claimed absolutely that they were. She did however point out very suspicious and in my opinion serious patterns and events that matched what we now know of bipolar. The illness is not *that* hit and miss. I think the ethiccal questions she raised were important. No, every bipolar is not an artistic genius, though overall bipolars are *more* creative than non bipolars. What happens to this creativity when we cure bipolar disorder? It's a good question. And a good book. People's personal distaste for or fear of mental illness notwithstanding, any open mind will find it's not making false claims, or glorifying pain. It's just examining some questions that should be brought to light.

Touched With Fire is by far the most life changing book I have ever read. Having suffered with Cyclothymia as long as I can remember, and also being an extremely creative person, I thought I was losing my mind...then I read this book. Kay Jamison explores the relationship between creativity and manic depressive illness in an amazing way. The excerpts of letters, etc., of great artists, writers and composers of the past are enlightening, inspiring, and devastating to read. They open up a new understanding of these individuals and what they lived with. This is a must read not only for those suffering from forms of manic depressive illness, but also those who are associated with them. Wonderful reading. INFORMATIVE, ENLIGHTENING, AND AMAZING.