This is fundamentally a book about living a life with a handicapping condition. In this case, the condition is a mental illness, which tends to be more stigmatized in our society and create more shame in the individual suffering from it. Nonetheless, it shares with other handicapping conditions a sense of stringent limitations and, sometimes, an envy of those perceived as "normal". This desire to be "normal" permeates the latter part of the book, as Ms. Jamison comes to see that the steadiness her colleagues experience is desirable, and that the volatility of her moods leaves her always out-of-synch with herself (p. 169). At the same time, she recognized that there was a fundamental difference between her and those "normal" people with their steady moods that neither side could quite comprehend. She indicated that it is like a sighted person trying to understand someone blind; ultimately, both live in different worlds that are not completely understood, even when good will and empathy exist (p. 168).
However, even though the desire for normalcy came to dominate her, Jamison did not always experience that same desire for steadiness and an even-keel existence. In the earlier part of the book, she detailed her resistance to taking lithium, even though manic-depression was tearing her mind, and her life, apart.
Perhaps that will be one of her major contributions to the study of manic-depression, that un
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