Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison ( born June 22, 1946) is an American psychologist, psychiatry professor and author of several books about the disease bipolar disorder from which she herself suffers.

Life and work

Jamison taught psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and is an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews. Jamison received his doctorate in psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was nominated for the title of Best Doctors in the United States. Time magazine named her Hero of Medicine.

Her work is often deals with the topic of suicide. They even undertook at the age of 28 years, attempted suicide by trying to poison himself with an overdose of lithium.

Her principal work manic-depressive illness, which she co-wrote with Frederick K. Goodwin, is considered basic work on this mental disorder.

Kay Redfield Jamison is the patron of the German homepage BipolArt, the creative works published mentally ill to fight in this way against the discrimination of these people.

2001 she was a MacArthur Fellow. 2013 she was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize.

Writings (selection )

• An Unquiet Mind. Vintage Books, New York 1995, ISBN 0-679-76330-9 ( autobiography ). My restless soul. The history of manic depression. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-442-15030-2.

• When it gets dark. For an understanding of suicide. BTV, Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8333-0232-1.