She only gradually became aware of her illness, in part because she initially went a very long time in the manic phase without crashing into the depressive phase. Part 2 focuses on the development of her manic-depressive illness, as it was around this time that she began to experience full-blown psychosis. Though she preferred graduate school to undergraduate school, she still largely disliked the more rigid academic requirements, yet passed her exams and joined the faculty at UCLA in her late twenties. Following undergraduate work, she continued her studies at UCLA, pursuing a doctorate in psychology. Andrews in Scotland, which had a profound effect on her. She also spent a year studying abroad at the University of St. Jamison likewise struggled to adjust to “civilian life” in California, and it was during this period in high school that she began to notice swings between weeks of high, passionate energy, followed by weeks of lethargy.įollowing high school, Jamison attended the University of Southern California she struggled with academics due to her mood swings, but loved learning and managed to accrue valuable research experience with some of her professors. As a teenager, however, things began to change: her father left the Air Force for a job at the Rand Corporation, in California, but his mood swings and esoteric passions grew worse, giving way to alcoholism and ultimately costing him his job and marriage.
Nevertheless, she always felt support from her parents, and she believes that if she was given to moods herself as a child, they were likely alleviated by her comfortable existence. Her mother, the daughter of a professor of physics, was unintellectual but a warm, friendly, popular conversationalist her father was given to impulsive passions, and though she has fond memories of her father while young, recalls that those wild passions frequently gave way to more somber periods.
Jamison spent the majority of her childhood moving around the world due to her father’s status as an Air Force pilot and scientist despite this, Jamison considers her youth to have been one of relative comfort and stability.
Part 1 describes her childhood and the development of her mood swings as a teenager.
The book is divided into four parts, loosely focused on different periods of her life, although the narrative structure is not always in strict chronological order.
0 kommentar(er)
