Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison (born June 22, 1946) is an American professor of psychiatry and writer who is one of the foremost experts on bipolar disorder, which she herself suffers from. She is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.

Jamison received a Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA and joined the faculty there. She has been named one of the "Best Doctors in the United States" and was chosen by Time magazine as a "Hero of Medicine." She was also chosen as one of the five individuals for the public television series Great Minds of Medicine.

Her book Manic-Depressive Illness (which she co-authored with Frederick K. Goodwin) is the classic textbook on bipolar disorder. In another book Exuberance: The Passion for Life, she cites research which suggests that 15 percent of people who could be diagnosed as manic depressive may never actually become depressed; in effect, they are permanently 'high' on life. She mentions President Theodore Roosevelt as an example. She herself has written about the agony of severe depression and has admitted to feeling suicidal, even to the point of an attempted suicide by a lithium overdose.

In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, she shows how bipolar disorder can run in artistic or high-achieving families. As an example, she cites Lord Byron and his ancestors. In Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, Jamison provides a comprehensive resource on suicide. She discusses historical, religious, and cultural responses to suicide. She details the relationship between mental illness and suicide. She dedicates a chapter to American public policy and public opinion as it relates to suicide.