"Kay Jamison is plainly among the few who have a profound understanding of the relationship that exists between art and madness," said William Styron, the late award-winning author of Sophie’s Choice who struggled with depression throughout his life. Jamison is among a group of cognitive scientists who examine the role that mental disorders have on the creative processes.

Jamison has made the best-seller lists with An Unquiet Mind (1995). In her memoir, she went public with her personal and professional struggles to conquer the extreme mood swings of manic-depression and offers hopes to those with the illness and their families. She writes about how she learned to manage her moods, after numerous setbacks and a suicide attempt, to gain a normal life with a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Her biography of illness chronicles her mastery of college, graduate school and tenure-track career as a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The book was on the New York Times best-sellers’ list for more than five months and garnered Book of the Year honors from The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer .

While at UCLA, Jamison was instrumental in establishing the UCLA Affective Disorders Clinic. Her work has been recognized with such accolades as one of five individuals showcased in the PBS–TV series Great Minds of Medicine and TIME’s "Hero of Medicine."

Now a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and an honorary professor of English at St. Andrews in Scotland, Jamison has continued to enlighten the public on issues related to mental disorders in other ground-breaking books: Exuberance: the Passion for Life (exuberance, the fuel of creativity), Night Falls Fast (suicide) and Touched with Fire (manic-depression). She has also coauthored a medical text on manic-depression that has been chosen in 1990 as "Most Outstanding Book in Biomedical Sciences" by the American Association of Publishers.

Tickets are not needed. Because of the popularity of this series, online registration is encouraged.

The Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 2003 to engage the university community in a discussion about important topics of our time. The lecture series brings together the intellectual community within the university and also the wider community. The speakers are individuals who are at or approaching the pinnacle of their achievements and are recognized nationally and/or internationally. Speakers are selected by a committee, under the direction of Christopher Cullis, professor of biology. The committee includes faculty and staff from the university’s schools and programs.

Steven Pinker, a noted psychologist and cognitive scientist from Harvard University, was the inaugural speaker. He was followed by Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who examines the influences that drive the rise and fall of cultures and societies. Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist who focuses on hidden dimensions in the universe, spoke last year.

For more information, contact susan [dot] griffith [at] case [dot] edu, 216-368-1004.