Review by Choice Review
A richly documented argument for an intimate relationship between a manic-depressive disposition and artistic creativity, this work by Jamison (Johns Hopkins Univ.), coauthor (with Frederick K. Goodwin) of a major work, Manic-depressive Illness (1990), exploits autobiographical material, genealogical studies, biological research, and diverse other inquiries to make its case. A centerpiece is a detailed examination of Lord Byron's life and art. This volume is a considerable contribution to our understanding of the inner workings of the creative process, and it will be of outstanding value to anyone interested in relating the inner life of artists to their works. General; graduate through professional. B. Kaplan; Clark University
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Review by Library Journal Review
The author succeeds nicely in her effort ``to make a literary, biographical, and scientific argument for a compelling association . . . between two temperaments--the artistic and the manic-depressive--and their relationship to the rhythms of the natural world.'' Jamison (psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Univ.) examines the lives of writers and artists afflicted with manic-depression, discussing at length the case of Lord Byron. In language comprehensible to the lay reader, she presents a thorough overview of current knowledge concerning the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this disorder, a topic also addressed, though in a less scientifically rigorous fashion, in D.J. Hershman and Julian Lieb's The Key to Genius (Prometheus Bks, 1988). The current work is recommended for all academic libraries; it will earn its keep in large and medium-sized public libraries as well.-- Mary Ann Hughes, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Study of manic depression and inspiration that for many will be a hard read but that makes its points convincingly--if only fragmentarily--chapter by chapter. The relation between madness and genius is a fascinating subject, and Jamison (Psychiatry/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) has a rich lode of firsthand observers to quote from: Byron, Coleridge, van Gogh, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Virginia Woolf, and many more, all of whom offer spellbinding words about their bouts with manic depression (paranoia and schizophrenia aren't covered). The basic argument here is ``not that all writers and artists are depressed, suicidal, or manic. It is, rather, that a greatly disproportionate number of them are; that the manic-depressive and artistic temperaments are, in many ways, overlapping ones; and that the two temperaments are causally related to one another.'' Genealogical studies of famed manic depressives show a definite genetic linkage, which is complemented by a seasonal one: Jamison includes seasonal tables of mood disorders, fluctuating productivity (``winter depression...summer hypomanias''), and peak times for suicide. Lithium and newer drugs, she explains, often dampen creative highs while relieving victims of turmoil and suicidal lows, but calm periods at optimum serum blood levels may allow longer, more productive periods of creativity. Some sufferers, however, choose to go with the lows for the rewards of the hypomanic state when it returns (hypomania is a middling state that gives a rich lift before the hyperactivity of mania or the colossal bleakness of melancholia). Jamison also finds a high incidence of manic depression among substance abusers, although she doesn't study the incidence of illness among abstinent drinkers or drug-abusers. Clear writing and research, but heavily clinical.
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