This work is a personal testimony from Kay Redfield Jamison: the revelation of her struggle with manic depression since adolescence, and how it has shaped her life. The book follows her through college, a love affair, her battle with the illness, bouts of madness, violence and attempted suicide.

Written by a Professor of Psychiatry and world authority on manic-depression, this memoir is unique because Dr Kay Jamison has suffered from the illness for as long as she can remember. Here she differentiates between 'normal' depression (that experienced after a divorce, during the breakdown of a relationship etc) and the real illness which is 'flat, hollow and unendurable'. Where this intimate, searching autobiography excels is in the positive message it leaves: although she says 'I have seen the breadth and depth and width of my mind and heart and seen how frail they both are', her conclusion is that her depression has its 'advantages'. Doris Lessing described this book as 'a lifeline' for sufferers and those who are trying to help them. (Kirkus UK)