Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament

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The march of science in explaining human nature continues. In Touched With Fire, Jamison marshals a tremendous amount of evidence for the proposition that most artistic geniuses were (and are) manic depressives. This is a book of interest to scientists, psychologists, and artists struggling with the age-old question of whether psychological suffering is an essential component of artistic creativity. Anyone reading this book closely will be forced to conclude that it is. Very Highly Recommended.

Customer Reviews:

Creativity and Fire.......2007-04-23

HOw much of the creativity of fiery individuals is due to mood disorders? This book explores the connection of many who have been artistic and successful with mood disorder. Is there such a thing as an artistic temperament?

Not the whole story...but a fine effort all the same.......2006-11-06

As mentioned by others, if you are looking for the actual process of how depression is seen to predispose certain people to be creative then this book is not for you. The fineline between madman and genius is still poorly understood. Jamisons book is a treatise on what information is known along with citing studies and statistical analysis. It is aimed more towards scientists etc. studying the phenomenon as opposed to individuals looking for answers as to why they are prone to depression and the creativity that depression brings about.
However, with the above in mind, Jamison has done a good job. I feel it to be incomplete as it doesn't really get in to the nitty gritty of what exactly is happening to cause the madman/genius scenario. Alas that isn't a failing of Jamison, more a case that currently no one knows with any certainty as to what is going on. Is it hereditary?, Genetics?, a social failing, artists taking advantage of societies perception of the madgenius-artist?, being predisposed to being more emotional and just feeling the highs and lows of the human condition to a greater degree? etc. etc. Hopefully one day soon the underlying causes may be know but not today. And in a way that is a plus for this book - Jamison for the most part appears to be impartial to the theories and merely collects them together for the reader to to review. There are some biographies of certain artists/writers/poets/musicians etc. with Lord Byron being the greatest study. They make for very interesting reading, along with the lists of well regarded artistic types and their battles with mental illness.
If you are someone looking for answers this book isn't for you. But if you are looking for the current state of affairs in this field then you will find much here to dwell on. My background is science so I found the delivery of the book to be standard scientific fare and had no problems reading it. It may come across as dry to a reader not so well versed in this manner of writing. As I am now a writer and an artist I found the book to be very interesting - I didn't learn much beyond what common sense will tell you but it was useful to have all the current studies in one tome. A book in a similar vein worth reading is Anthony Storr's "Churchill's Black Dog".

Mens sana in corpore sano........2006-10-11

Over the years.....for as long as I can remember - I sit alone and let my mind soar to the most incredible heights. My mind hears, sees and feels ....original music that tragically will never be heard. Motion Pictures that will never be seen. Eroticism that would make even the most sexually creative blush - never be felt.

My mind went too high...too often that made life too difficult to bear when the stars tuned to clouds.

Before the medication, early on a Sunday morning - I would play my piano into the early evening......with only vague recollections of my wife's voice mentioning something about lunch. Never being satisfied with what I had played over the last 12 hours. Vainly trying to fight off the anxiety and depression. The waves of original music I had just played while my body covered in goose bumps and those encompassing waves not dissimilar to a sexual orgasm..only giving way to the frustration and damning myself for the melodies that did not come. Regardless of the niceties bestowed upon me by neighbors at cocktail parties who overheard while watering the lawn or walking the dog.

Mens sana in corpore sano - A healthy mind in a healthy body is something madness will not allow.

My children and I thank you Dr. Greenfield and we thank you Pamela for continuing to lead me past the open windows. I love you both from the bottom of my heart.

....and thank you Kay for the validation.

Still Worth A Read.......2006-07-15

While Prof. Jamison's previous writing has inspired me and also given me insight to the potential pitfalls that face someone with bipolar disorder, I found this book to be a bit more technical. Perhaps a little too technical.

Regardless, Kay Redfield Jamison is a brilliant author. Her honesty, insight, and ability to open her world to you as a reader is amazing. Blunt. Honest. Thought-provoking.

Look up her other works and you will NOT be disappointed, particularly "An Unquiet Mind". You won't regret it.

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament .......2006-06-30

It is a very beotifull book, with an almost poetical writing abaut the relation between the manic-Depressive illness and art creativity. It is over all a book that does not approach the problematic of the illness from a negative point of view but yes looking to important points that they must be had in account when somebody is come across with this illness and not only from a clinical point but also social and cultural point of view.

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TOUCHED WITH FIRE: MANIC DEPRESSIVE ILLNESS AND THE ARTISTIC TEMPERAMENT
KAY REDFIELD JAMISON
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Manic Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000QV5I3C

2 KAY REDFIELD JAMISON Books - 1) - An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness / 2) - Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (Unboxed Set of Manic/Clinical Depression/Bipolar Disorder Books)

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2 KAY REDFIELD JAMISON Books - 1) - An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness / 2) - Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (Unboxed Set of Manic/Clinical Depression/Bipolar Disorder Books)
KAY REDFIELD JAMISON
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VNMTLO

Product Description

2 KAY REDFIELD JAMISON Books - 1) - An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness / 2) - Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (Unboxed Set of Manic/Clinical Depression/Bipolar Disorder Books), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.

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Touched With Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
Kay Redfield. Jamison
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Manic Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000KHAZRQ

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Touched With Fire: Manic-depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
Kay Redfield Jamison
Manufacturer: Free Press Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Manic Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000JR9H8U

Book Description

Today, many visual artists are giving the cold shoulder to the static, isolated concept of visual art and searching instead for novel, dynamic connections to different image strategies. Because of that, visual art and aesthetics are both forced to reconsider their current positions and their traditional apparatus of concepts. In that process, many questions surface. To mention a few: Could the characteristics of an artistic image and its specific manner of signification be determined in a world which is entirely aesthetisized? What would be the consequences of a variety of image strategies for aesthetic experience? Would it be possible to develop a form of cultural criticism by means of artistic activities in a culture awash in images?
In order to answer such questions, aesthetics as a philosophy of art needs to transform its field into a critical philosophy of topical visual culture. As an impetus to such a reinterpretation of the visual working area, the L & B Series organized three symposia evenings under the title "Exploding Aesthetics", in cooperation with De Appel Center for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam. Besides the presentations and discussions from these symposia, this volume includes various arguments, positions, and statements in both articles and interviews by a variety of visual artists, designers, advertising professionals, theorists and curators. The participants are: Mieke Bal, Annette W. Balkema, Peg Brand, Experimental Jetset, Liam Gillick, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Martin Jay, KesselsKramer, Friedrich Kittler, Maria Lind, Wim Michels, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Planet Art, Joke Robaard, Annemieke Roobeek, Remko Scha, Rob SchrÖder, Henk Slager, Richard Shusterman, Pauline Terreehorst, Wolfgang Welsch and Marie-Lou Witmer.

Amazon.com

Movie stars in sharp suits and sunglasses, disgraced princesses on cherry-red Vespas--all the sights and scandals of the via Veneto at the height of Euro-cool were captured by the packs of shutterbugs who haunted the streets of Rome in the '50s and '60s. The most famous of these guerrilla photojournalists was Tazio Secchiaroli, and the popular magazines lovingly recorded his tussles with reluctant subjects. He was the inspiration for the character in Fellini's La Dolce Vita whose name, Paparazzo, would come to be applied to celebrity-chasing photographers everywhere. But Secchiaroli distinguished himself from the pack with his astonishing instinct for taking the right picture. His shots of an impromptu striptease at a society party devote more space to the entranced onlookers than they do to naked flesh, and this transforms them from salacious snapshots into historical documents. The same can be said of all of the images collected here. From his earliest pictures, through his paparazzo period, to his work on Fellini's sets and as Sophia Loren's personal photographer, Secchiaroli's photographs capture the energy of an era. Whether it's Peter Sellers caught in mid-boogie, David Hemmings leaping into a sports car, or Fellini himself cracking a whip on the set of 8 1/2, these captured moments say more about their subjects than a thousand posed portraits. --Simon Leake

Customer Reviews:

nice for the coffee table.......1999-08-06

I admit feeling a little disappointed when I first leafed through "Tazio...". While there are some excellent photos, well reproduced, the subject matter - to my taste - is limited. Tazio's documentary portraits of ordinary people are more interesting from a contemporary perspective than the mostly faded stars he was eager to shoot, and there's not enough of the former. There's quite an extensive biography interspersed with photos in the first half of the book, followed by a more formal gallery of work. The book will look nice on the coffee table, but like most of its subject matter, it remains an ephemeral interest.

Tazio Secchiaroli: Greatest of the Paparazzi (ISBN: 0810941775)

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Tazio Secchiaroli: Greatest of the Paparazzi (ISBN: 0810941775)
Diego Mormorio
Manufacturer: Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MTRYTO

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Tazio Secchiaroli: Greatest of the Paparazzi.
DIEGO MORMORIO
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RRAZ06

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Nice story, in a soap-opera way

the story continues! what an amazing read!

The Collected "Omaha" The Cat Dancer : Volume Two
Reed Waller , and Kate Worley
Manufacturer: Kitchen Sink Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

Nice story, in a soap-opera way.......2006-06-01

It's a "furries" world, peopled by human-looking folk who actually happen to be birds, dogs, or (like Omaha) cats. In a charming bit of counter-racism, no one much seems to notice, to the point that people of one species would be quite happy at an [um] exotic dance display put on by one of the others. That's where Omaha comes in, as a [um] dancer.

There's no bam-pow action in this series. Instead, it follows a set of friends (dancers, millionaires, hookers, photographers) through trials and tribulations of family, loss, and the rest. The series has a gentle spirit, with lots of acceptance of people as they are. For example, this 1980s comic shows its gay characters sympathetically and has a laissez faire sense about what passes between consenting adults. That includes some fairly explicit exchanges of physical affection. It's always happy and consensual, but some people don't like seeing gentalia in their comics, so be warned.

"Omaha" has a low-key pace, more for romance readers than for action-lovers. The artwork is B&W, and subject to erratic quality in the drawing department - that's certainly not why you'd buy it. If characterization matters most to you, there's a lot to like here.

//wiredweird

the story continues! what an amazing read!.......2000-05-20

after i read vol.1 of Omaha the Cat Dancer, i spent months looking for vol.2. what happened next? i had to know what happened to Omaha and the rest of the gang! would she ever see Chuck again? then i finally managed to find a copy of vol.2 and it was amazing! if you've read the first book, this is a must-read. if you haven't, read it anyway! the story is great!

Collected Omaha (Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer, Vol 3)

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Reed Waller
Manufacturer: Kitchen Sink Press
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Kate Worley
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The Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer (Vol. 1)

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The Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer (Vol. 1)
Reed; Worley, Kate Waller
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Volume Two: The Collected "Omaha" the Cat Dancer

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Volume Two: The Collected "Omaha" the Cat Dancer
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The Collected "Omaha" the Cat Dancer, Volume 3

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Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 1 Sign

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Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 1 Sign
Reed Waller
Manufacturer: KITCHEN SINK *
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Customer Reviews:

Ordinary Writing.......2001-07-13

WRITING ON THE JOB is easiest and most effective when aping popular magazine style: conversational, informatively short, straightforward, with a clearly identified audience whose goodwill needs to be kept; message treating one idea at a time from a strong beginning all the way to an impact closing, with text having a freshly printed look, taking up one side of a page and using a good-sized typeface, plenty of white space and visual cues such as bullets, subheads and underlining to highlight key points; and purpose, to get specific responses good for business. The organization needs to be extraordinary, by being in sync with other company documents and by putting all the necessary information in a persuasively tight order, but the tone needs to reach ordinary people. Cosmo F. Ferrara covers just about all the business writing around: audit reports; instructions; job descriptions; claim/adjustment, collection, complaint, recommendation/reference, and sales letters; memos; proposals; requests; and resumes. This clearly organized and well written book works on its own, but shares common concerns with THE AMA STYLE GUIDE FOR BUSINESS WRITING, Philip C. Kolin's SUCCESSFUL WRITING AT WORK, and Roy W. Poe's THE MCGRAW-HILL HANDBOOK OF BUSINESS LETTERS.

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Contributors take a critical look at the pressures guiding policy-making by combining acute analyses of the overall themes of racialization, nationalism, migration, and the development of EU migration policy, with in-depth studies of most of its member states. Specialists of each country address the importance of demands for labour and political pressures for restrictions on immigration in the face of entrenched racisms and/or nationalism and examine the fundamental sources of conflict over migration control, bringing together categories of analysis such as

Migrant Women Professionals in the European Union

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In the 1990s, growth in women's employment in the EU remained small. This book looks at the obstacles faced by women in the nursing and banking professions when they migrate between member states. Basing her analysis on the personal accounts of migrants, and discussions with colleagues and regulatory bodies in Britain, Germany and Spain, the author sheds light on one of the major challenges confronting the EU.

Migrant Workers in International Human Rights Law: Their Protection in Countries of Employment

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Migrant Workers in International Human Rights Law: Their Protection in Countries of Employment
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Migrant workers and their families outnumber refugees and displaced persons, but are given far less attention when it comes to the international protection of their rights. Indeed, to be an economic migrant today carries with it a stigma in a word where barriers to voluntary international migration are growing ever higher. This timely work evaluates the international protection of the rights of migrant workers and their families in countries of employment focusing on their economic, social, cultural, political, and residence rights. The book begins with an overview of international labour migration and its relationship to the right to development. It examines the rights of migrant workers as aliens in general international human rights law as well as the specific efforts and measures of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations. The final part contains a comprehensive case study of the multifarious standards adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe and the European Union to protect this increasingly vulnerable group of human beings.

The Rights of Immigrant Workers in the European Union:An Evaluation of the EU Public Policy Process and the Legal Status of Labour Immigrants from Maghreb Countries in the New Receiving States

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The Rights of Immigrant Workers in the European Union:An Evaluation of the EU Public Policy Process and the Legal Status of Labour Immigrants from Maghreb Countries in the New Receiving States
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This book is one of the very few studies that evaluates the evolving policies towards third country nationals residing and working in the European Union (EU). Other studies have analysed the existing legal framework of citizenship and migrants' rights in the EU and the flow of migrants into the Community. However, much less comparative research has been carried out about the actual position and the practice of migrants' rights in the receiving countries, in the context of an ever integrating EU and the removal of internal borders. The focus of this book is on the consequences of the increasing number of Maghrebin workers residing in Italy and Spain -- both for EU policy and with respect to these two countries as relatively new receiving states. The book examines: What public policy implications does the labour immigration from the Maghreb Countries have for the EU as a supranational Community rather than for the Member states individually? To what extent can citizenship rights be extended to third country nationals legally residing in a European Union to make their status as close as possible to that of European citizens?

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