An Unquiet Mind Characters

The narrator and main character of An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison is a writer, psychiatrist, and researcher. Her work on mood disorders—specifically manic-depressive illness, or bipolar disorder, which she has lived with since… read analysis of Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison describes her father as a charming, ebullient, and magnetic man whose gregariousness was overwhelming, whose passion for life was unrivaled, and whose mercurial shifts in mood were often violent. An Air Force… read analysis of Kay’s Father

Kay’s mother was a pragmatic, kind, and conservative woman whose steadiness balanced out her husband (Kay’s father) and his mercurial and volatile moods. Thoughtful and supportive—even when the young Kay rebelled against her… read analysis of Kay’s Mother

Kay’s older sister is beautiful and tempestuous. She and Kay have always had a difficult relationship marred by jealousy, misunderstanding, and judgment. Kay’s sister’s cruel, callous statements about Kay’s decision to take lithium (a mood… read analysis of Kay’s Sister

A psychology professor at UCLA whose class Kay took as an undergraduate. An intelligent and open man, this professor noticed a spark in Kay during class and admired her for taking an upper-level course as… read analysis of Kay’s Psychology Professor

An unnamed French artist whom Kay married in the early 1970s while at the beginning of her doctoral studies at UCLA, Kay’s first husband is a kind, gentle, and passionate but level-headed man. He provided… read analysis of Kay’s First Husband

This male colleague of Kay’s frequently checked in on her while she was in the darkest days of her manic-depressive illness in the mid-1970s at UCLA. After Kay’s illness became too much to handle… read analysis of Kay’s Colleague

A good-looking, charming, intelligent man who served as the chief resident at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute during Kay’s time there. As Kay’s manias and depressions worsened in the mid-1970s, she reluctantly sought the help… read analysis of Kay’s Psychiatrist

One of Kay’s major love interests, David Laurie was a psychiatrist for the Royal Army Medical Corps in England. Kay and David met during one of David’s visits to UCLA. Though she was attracted… read analysis of David Laurie

The Englishman is an unnamed lover with whom Kay takes up during her yearlong sabbatical in England. A passionate and sensitive man, The Englishman was instrumental in helping Kay make the decision to lower her… read analysis of The Englishman

Kay Redfield Jamison’s second husband, Richard Wyatt, is a schizophrenia researcher and Chief of Neuropsychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health. Kay lovingly describes Richard as her perfect opposite: a level-headed and deeply practical… read analysis of Richard Wyatt

A scientist whose research in the 1950s was instrumental in determining the double-helix structure of DNA. A colleague of Kay’s in the 1980s, Kay recalls Jim as a highly intelligent and restless man with… read analysis of Jim Watson

A Danish psychiatrist who was instrumental in introducing lithium as a modern-day treatment for manic-depressive illness. Kay recalls spending a day on a boat trip with him during a break from an American Psychiatric… read analysis of Mogens Schou

The chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. He surprises Kay by reacting to the news of her manic-depressive illness by telling her that many people on the faculty are affected by the… read analysis of Kay’s Chairman