Kay Redfield Jamison
American clinical psychologist and professor of psychiatry known for research on mood disorders
American clinical psychologist with a UCLA doctorate who founded UCLA's Affective Disorders Clinic and later became a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. Her scholarly work covers mood disorders, suicide and the link between mood disorders and creativity.
Why this person matters
Jamison co-wrote Manic-Depressive Illness, described as a classic text on bipolar disorder, and wrote Touched with Fire on the relationship between manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament. Her book on suicide covers historical, religious and cultural responses. She worked with colleagues such as Frederick Goodwin.
Main contributions
Manic-Depressive Illness
Jamison co-authored this 1990 textbook with Frederick K. Goodwin, published by Oxford University Press. It covers the diagnosis, clinical studies, psychological effects and pathophysiology of the disorder.
Touched with Fire
Her 1993 book examined the association between manic-depressive illness and the creative temperament. It draws on scientific and medical data and on case studies of figures such as Robert Schumann and Vincent van Gogh, and notes that not all artists have the illness.
Night Falls Fast
Her 1999 book Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide covers historical, religious and cultural responses to suicide and its relationship to mental illness.
Context and limits
A reference article reports that the acknowledgments of Manic-Depressive Illness state that Goodwin received unrestricted educational grants from several pharmaceutical companies, and that Jamison received occasional lecture honoraria from some of them but no research support from any pharmaceutical or biotechnology company. The sources read contain no scholarly critiques of her books. The link between creativity and mood disorders in Touched with Fire rests partly on case studies of historical figures.
In your introductory course
Psychological disorders.Jamison appears in chapters on mood disorders and bipolar disorder, and in discussions of suicide and creativity. Her textbook is a common reference for the clinical picture of bipolar disorder.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 15.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1975
She completed her PhD at UCLA.
- 1987
She became affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is a professor of psychiatry.
- 1990
Manic-Depressive Illness was published with Frederick Goodwin.
- 1993
Touched with Fire was published.
- 1999
Night Falls Fast was published.
Sources
- MacArthur Foundation, Kay Redfield Jamison, class of 2001Society or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Encyclopedia.com, Jamison, Kay RedfieldReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Kay Redfield JamisonReference work. Reference article inspected.