“Complicating Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind as the Emblem of Manic Distress and Depression” -Meghann O’Leary
Disability Studies Working Group
December 7, 2018
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location
Disability Cultural Center at Richard Daley Library
Address
801 S. Morgan Street Room 1-470, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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"Complicating Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind as the Emblem of Manic Distress and Depression"
Meghann O’Leary
PhD candidate in Disability Studies
Abstract:
In 1995 American clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison, published her memoir An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. In the book Jamison details her personal experience of bipolar disorder, including a psychotic episode and suicide attempt. The memoir became a national bestseller and currently has 20 editions published in various languages around the world. Lauded by critics for her bravery and emotionally moving prose, Jamison’s memoir remains a highly regarded representation what it is like to experience bipolar disorder. What is most problematic about the reviews and articles discussing An Unquiet Mind is the repeated suggestion that the text is more than a representation of one woman’s experience with madness, but a literal window into understanding manic depression and telling the “truth.” Jamison’s memoir is compelling for a number of reasons, but this chapter will challenge the repeated assertion that it is a true account of the experience of bipolar disorder, and that it is universally, culturally accessible. Rather than a factual depiction of bipolar disorder, this alternate reading of Jamison’s text will utilize an intersectional queer/crip/mad theoretical lens to emphasize the points of resistance found in the memoir. This reading explores the ways in which Jamison let’s go of clinical, medicalized frameworks and claims a sense of agency. This text is not a window into the experience of bipolar disorder, but it is a window into one woman’s method of grappling with both the discursive and embodied constructions of gender, identity and madness as a way to articulate her subjectivity.
Meghann O’Leary is currently a PhD candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Vassar College. Her research interests include the intersections of Mad Studies and Disability Studies as well as providing an intersectional lens to the study of life writings by women diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities. Her current work involves placing life writings by women with psychiatric disabilities in a historical, cultural and political context to frame the relationship between disability, madness, race, class and gender.
Date posted
Nov 29, 2018
Date updated
Nov 29, 2018