Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., M.A.

Headshot of Kay Redfield Jamison
  • Co-Director, Mood Disorders Center
  • Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Research Interests

Mood disorders; Suicide; Creativity and Temperament ...read more

Background

Kay Redfield Jamison is the Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders, Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and co–director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. She is also Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

She is the co–author of the standard medical text on bipolar (manic–depressive) illness, which was chosen as the most outstanding book in biomedical sciences by the American Association of Publishers, and author of Touched with Fire, An Unquiet Mind, Night Falls Fast, Exuberance, Nothing Was the Same, and Robert Lowell:  Setting the River on Fire  (2018 Pulitzer finalist), and Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind.

Dr. Jamison did her undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a National Science Foundation Research Fellow, University of California Cook Scholar, John F. Kennedy Scholar, United States Public Health Service Predoctoral Research Fellow, and UCLA Graduate Woman of the Year. She also studied zoology and neurophysiology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the recipient of the Lewis Thomas Prize, the Sarnat Prize from the National Academy of Medicine, and a MacArthur Fellowship.   

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Titles

  • Co-Director, Mood Disorders Center
  • Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders
  • Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Education

Degrees

  • B.A.; University of California (Los Angeles) (California) (1971)
  • M.A.; University of California (Los Angeles) (California) (1971)
  • Ph.D.; University of California (Los Angeles) (California) (1975)

Additional Training

C. Phil, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 1973

Residency, Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 1974, Clinical Psychology

Research & Publications

Selected Publications

Goodwin, F. K. and Jamison, K. R. Manic-Depressive Illness.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1990.  (Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression).  Second edition, 2007.

Jamison, K. R. Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.  New York:  Free Press (Macmillan), 1993.

Jamison, K. R. An Unquiet Mind.  New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. (Translated into 30 languages).

Jamision, K. R. Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.  (Translated into 25 languages).

Jamison, K. R. Exuberance: The Passion for Life.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Jamison, K. R. Nothing Was the Same:  A Memoir.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

Jamison, K. R. Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017

Activities & Honors

Honors

  • MacArthur Award
  • Lewis Thomas Prize
  • Sarnet Prize from the National Academy of Medicine
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Pulitzer Prize Finalist (for Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire)

Videos & Media

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

Brush with Madness, CBS News, August 19, 2018

'River on Fire' explores genius, madness and the poetry of Robert Lowell,NPR, February 28, 2017

Kay Redfield Jamison puts Robert Lowell on the couch in a fascinating biography,Washington Post, February 22, 2017

Kay Redfield Jamison on Exchanges of the Frontier, BBC World Service, March 1, 2014

Brain a ''Creativity Machine,'' If You Use It Right, USA Today, November 9, 2013

More Than a Million Blows to Discrimination, Hopkins Brain Wise, Summer 2013

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