KAY REDFIELD JAMISON is the Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders and a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as an honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the coauthor of the standard medical text on bipolar disorder and author of An Unquiet Mind, Night Falls Fast, Exuberance, and Touched with Fire. Her most recent book, Robert Lowell- Setting the River on Fire, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Dr. Jamison is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is a recipient of the Lewis Thomas Prize, the Sarnat Prize from the National Academy of Medicine, and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.
"In this loose sequel to a bestselling memoir of bipolar illness,
Jamison, a writer and a psychologist, explores the process of
prying a mind from disease or despair. Healing, she writes,
depends on “harvesting the imagination” and navigating “the balance
between remembering and forgetting”; it also, crucially, relies on
support . . . Jamison emphasizes the importance of recognizing
a diversity of sources of fortitude and models of accompaniment."
—The New Yorker, “Best Books of 2023”
"Jamison’s wonderful Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind, a
book about healing that, drawing on the lives and work of figures
as diverse as WHR Rivers and Paul Robeson, should make us all think
again about mental illness, the profession of psychiatry, and how
we heal ourselves and others." — John Burnside, The Guardian
"Fascinating . . . Poignant . . . Jamison writes movingly about
topics ranging from the workings of ancient Greek healing temples
to the tribulations of World War I nurses facing the limits of
healing soldiers’ ravaged bodies and minds." —Science News
“The desperate, uncertain, even heroic attempt to heal is at the
center of Jamison’s new book . . . It is a kaleidoscopic
vision of treatment and recovery that reflects her own passionately
varied intellectual life. One through-line in her book is the
constant nearness of loss, of pain, of suffering . . . But most of
all, her work is replete with the kindnesses she has encountered in
her long experience struggling with, and thinking about, mental
illness.” —The New York Times
“Jamison is a beautiful writer with a vast store of knowledge . . .
Her book contains a blueprint for finding a way out of darkness—a
great gift for anyone who sometimes struggles to overcome psychic
pain.” —The Washington Post
"Psychologist Jamison (The Unquiet Mind) brings personal and
professional insight to this rigorous , deeply felt meditation on
psychological healing. . . . . An eloquent, wide-ranging, and
edifying look at healing relationships of all kinds." —Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
“A humane, elegantly written contribution
to the literature of trauma and care . .
. Jamison opens with a graceful portrait of Sir William
Osler (1849-1919), the medical pioneer recognized by
American doctors a century later as “the most influential
physician in history . . . [and] moves on to a
consideration of the ancient connections of healing,
ritual, and magic, some of which come into
play in modern therapy. Along the way,
while looking further at stress- and trauma-borne
illness, the author studs her narrative with luminous
figures such as Paul Robeson and Robert Graves.” —Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
“Jamison, the exquisite chronicler of her own unquiet mind,
reflects on the process—and adventure—of healing in this beautiful
cultural, historical, and creative exploration of what makes us
whole. She introduces us to the groundbreaking work of World War I
physicians working with shell-shocked soldiers; delves into public
grieving; and brings in the mythic patterns and imaginative
literature we need as touchstones for relief. Jamison’s elegant
prose, imbued with personal warmth and deep humanity, is itself a
solace, lighting the way on the path that leads us to a more
peaceful present and imaginative future.” —Lori Gottlieb, New York
Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone and
co-host of the "Dear Therapists" podcast
“Like all of Kay Redfield Jamison’s books, Fires in the Dark is a
wonderful blend of rigorous scholarship and intimate address. As
she tracks the history of American (and, specifically, Baltimorean)
medicine through the First World War, explores the relationship
between war poets and early healers of the mind, then explores
their influence and effect in wider as well as more personal
settings, she creates a history of healing, which is at once
thrilling in its scope and deeply touching in its particular
details.” —Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom,
1999–2009
“Kay Redfield Jamison has been a singular voice blending lived
experience, science, and poetry to help us fathom the depths and
heights of mental illness. In Fires in the Dark, she guides us
through the mystery of healing, exploring psychotherapy from its
ancient roots to its refinement during the First World War, linking
healing to art, suffering, and courage. She once again brings
together the wisdom of experience, compelling narrative, and poetic
insights to reveal what it takes to heal the mind. She calls this
book an ‘archipelago of thoughts, experiences, and images.’ For
anyone interested in healing, it is a string of islands not to be
missed.” —Thomas Insel, MD, author of Healing and former director
of the National Institute of Mental Health
“A profound and beautiful book. The last chapter felt like a
benediction. Paul Farmer would have admired it. It accompanies in
ways he thought essential. There is so much here for the art of
crafting a life of meaning . . . . Beautifully written. . . . A
marvelously creative intelligence.” —Arthur Kleinman, Professor of
Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry, Harvard University
“[Fires in the Dark] has a unique dramatic architecture born not
just of the specific content, but the remarkably creative
sequencing of that content, and a resulting overwhelming urgency.”
—Michael Hersch, Professor of Composition, The Peabody
Institute
“This book is beautiful. . . . The reach and breadth are consoling,
confirming, and vast. There’s a sense of study and scholarship and
witness shared and honored . . . the heart and quiet of it all. . .
. of peace. A rainbow.” —Leo Kottke, Acoustic guitarist
“Fires in the Dark is the latest in a series of highly regarded
publications by Jamison . . . It is concerned with healing, and
Jamison has in her life been both the healer and the healed.
Jamison takes [an] expansive approach: She is focused not only on
the acute stages of mental health problems, but on what comes
afterwards. . . . 'How do I take on the world? How do I take
some purpose from this?'" —Niall Boyce, The Lancet
“Transcendently beautiful. . . . The pondering of what the
therapeutic relationship is and how it works at its best is almost
staggeringly lovely and every word of it rings completely true.”
—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon
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