UC Santa Barbara’s Arts & Lectures presents Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison giving the talk “An Unquiet Mind: Understanding Depression, Bipolar Illness and suicide” on Thursday, October 11 in UCSB Campbell Hall at 7:30 pm. An international authority on mood disorders and suicide, Dr. Jamison went public with her own struggle with manic depression in her book An Unquiet Mind. Co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center and author of Night Falls Fast and Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire, Jamison addresses the realities of depression and bipolar disorder, encouraging dialogue, empathy and hope.
Professor of Psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Jamison is an international authority and researcher on mood disorders. Named a “Hero of Medicine" by TIME, she has unique insight into the world of mental illness.
Dr. Jamison explored her own struggle with manic depression in a 1995 Washington Post article and subsequent New York Times bestseller, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, which according to Oliver Sacks, “stands alone in the literature of manic depression for its bravery, brilliance, and beauty.”
The author of the national bestseller Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, Jamison co-authored the standard medical textbook on manic depression, Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression and is the author of Exuberance: The Passion for Life.
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography, her 2017 book, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character is a “psychological account” of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell and his remarkable ability to write amid manic episodes.
Jamison’s book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize, which recognizes scientific works that reach a wider audience outside of the laboratory. Inspired by her work, director Paul Dalio dramatized his own battle with manic depression and bipolar disorder in Touched with Fire, a 2016 film starring Katie Holmes.
Dr. Jamison has published over 100 articles in academic journals. She has shared her expertise on various television programs, and was one of five people featured in the PBS series Great Minds of Medicine.
A recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, Dr. Jamison is currently the Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders, a Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. She is an honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in the U.K.
The event is free for UCSB students (with valid ID at the door) and $20 for the general public. The evening is sponsored by Diana & Simon Raab. Courtesy of Chaucer's, books will be available for purchase and signing. Tickets may be purchased in advance at artsandlectures.ucsb.edu. For more information call (805) 893-3535.