Home / Authors / Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

Psychologist

Kay Redfield Jamison is an American psychologist known for her research on mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. Her work delves into the relationship between psychological illness and artistic creation, profoundly influencing public understanding of mental health issues.

Filter quotes by topic

All Illness People Suicide Bipolar Thinking Ifs Manic Mental Illness Mood Depression Way Pain Feels Mania Mind Wells Depressive Enough Grief Kind

Famous Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

“I think that one of the many advantages of death accruing over a long period of time is that you do have time to meet a lot of other people who are going through similar situations and one of the great delights of our life actually was sitting around in labs waiting for the results of tests and talking to other people who were waiting to find out whether their cancer numbers were going in the right direction or not.”

People Thinking Long Waiting Results Numbers Talking Situation Our Lives Periods Sitting Advantage Tests Cancer Delight Labs Right Direction Sitting Around Long Periods Of Time

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“People talk about grief as if it's kind of an unremittingly awful thing, and it is. It is painful, but it's a very, very interesting sort of thing to go through and it really helps you out.”

People Ifs Kind Helping Interesting Grief Painful Awful Very Interesting

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“In some cases, some people do get depressed in the middle of their grief and they really need to be treated for depression.”

People Needs Grief Cases Middle Treated

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“I think that when you're depressed, you can't concentrate long enough and well enough to read for the most part; some people can, but by and large people - that's one of the first things that goes, is the capacity to read meaningful literature. With grief, that's not true. For a while you can't read, but then you really are amenable to solace.”

People Thinking Firsts Wells Long Enough Literature Grief Capacity Meaningful Solace Amenable

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“I don't think grief of grief in a medical way at all. I think that I and many of my colleagues, are very concerned when grief becomes pathological, that there is no question that grief can trigger depression in vulnerable people and there is no question that depression can make grief worse.”

People Thinking Way Grief Concerned Medical Vulnerable Colleagues Triggers

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“If people can talk about having breast cancer, why can't people who have mental illness talk about mental illness? Until we're able to do that, we're not going to be treated with the same kind of respect for our diseases as other people.”

People Ifs Kind Able Disease Cancer Illness Treated Mental Illness Breasts Breast Cancer

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“Most people don't have the advantage of being able to evaluate their doctor in advance.”

People Able Advantage Doctors Evaluate

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“I think psychotherapy saves lives and is hugely meaningful and I think that one of the unfortunate aspects of prescription drugs working well is that people tend to think that's enough.”

People Thinking Wells Enough Drug Aspect Meaningful Unfortunate Prescriptions Psychotherapy Save A Life Prescription Drugs

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“From a public health point of view, still the overwhelming problem is that people are not treated enough for depression; depression remains under treated.”

People Stills Enough Problem Views Remains Point Of View Treated Overwhelming Public Health

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“I think that for thousands of years people have made the observation that there are certain kinds of extreme depressive states that seem to be more likely to produce philosophers, people in the arts, unusually brilliant scientists.”

People Thinking Years Kind Art Made States Seems Certain Produce Scientist Philosopher Extremes Brilliant Observation Depressive

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“I think people don't understand how intimately tied suicide is to mental illness, particularly to depressive illness and bipolar illness.”

People Thinking Suicide Illness Mental Illness Tied Bipolar Depressive

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“There are relatively few things that kill people that are young other than car accidents and suicide.”

People Young Car Suicide Accidents Car Accident

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“People are more impulsive and they get slightly less impulsive as they get older and the impulsiveness interacting with the depression is particularly devastating and lethal, potentially lethal.”

People Interacting Impulsive

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“Somehow, like so many people who get depressed, we felt our depressions were more complicated and existentially based than they actually were.”

People Felt Mental Health Complicated

Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

“When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. ‘This is my last experiment,’ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. ‘If there is any eternal torment worse than mine I’ll have to be shown.”

Source: Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

“I was late to understand that chaos and intensity are no subsitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life. Normal people are not always boring. On the contrary. Volatility and passion, although often more romantic and enticing, are not intrinsically preferable to a steadiness of experience and feeling about another person.”

People Persons Real Feelings Passion Normal Late Chaos Boring Contrary Improvement Real Life Lasting Intensity Lasting Love Enticing Volatility Steadiness

Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

“I think wanting to write is a fundamental sign of disease and discomfort. I don't think people who are comfortable want to write.”

People Thinking Want Writing Disease Depression Comfortable Fundamentals Illness Mental Illness Discomfort

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

“Mood disorders are terribly painful illnesses, and they are isolating illnesses. And they make people feel terrible about themselves when, in fact, they can be treated.”

People Feels Facts Terrible Painful Illness Mood Treated Disorder Mood Disorders

Author:Kay Redfield Jamison

About the Author

Born: June 22, 1946
Known for: Psychologist
Quotes: 120

Related Topics

Illness People Suicide Bipolar Thinking Ifs Manic Mental Illness Mood Depression Way Pain Feels Mania Mind Wells Depressive Enough Grief Kind

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and MadnessRelated source material

Night Falls Fast: Understanding SuicideRelated source material

Exuberance: The Passion for LifeRelated source material

Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent DepressionRelated source material

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic TemperamentRelated source material

Nothing Was the SameRelated source material

Touched With FireRelated source material

Similar Authors

Lady Victoria LeathamBrowse related quotes
Andy BehrmanBrowse related quotes
Maya ForbesBrowse related quotes
Tracy ThompsonBrowse related quotes
Anna CastilloBrowse related quotes
Janet C. LongBrowse related quotes
Clifford Whittingham BeersBrowse related quotes
Gordon ParkerBrowse related quotes
Patty DukeBrowse related quotes
Pete EarleyBrowse related quotes