psychiatrist, calm thyself
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Sun, 05 Apr 1998 21:37:08 +0000
At the risk taking this to topic to the fair altogether, I might
just mention the curious coincidence, or synchronicity
(any Jungians still prowling around out there ?), that the relation
of mental illness to literary giftedness is being discussed
currently on both the Hemingway list & (more tangentially) Austen-L.
On what I hope is a constructive note, I might also record how glad
I was to be reminded on one of these other lists of Professor
Jamison's book `An Unquiet Mind' - which I expect many members
here already know. Being herself a teacher of psychopharmacology
at Johns Hopkins & also a self-declared manic depressive, she writes
with marvellous balance about the limitations of both chemistry
& psychotherapy in the treatment of her illness - & how each has
played an essential part in helping her cope with it.
Though neither has, of course, cured it.
Scottie B. - who last took offence sometime around 1948.
(The idea is like unto the suggestion that Mohamed Ali might get
a bit touchy about remarks made by the drunks at the end of
the bar.)