Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire
Jamison, Kay Redfield
Primary Category:
Literature /
Poetry
Genre: Biography
-
Annotated by:
- Glass, Guy
- Date of entry: Jun-14-2017
Summary
Robert Lowell: Setting
the River on Fire is “a study of genius, mania, and character” of American
poet Robert Lowell (1917-1977). It is meant
to be neither an autobiography nor a critical study of Lowell’s literary
output, but a study of an artist and his lifelong battle with Bipolar I Disorder,
and an appreciation of how his art and illness were inseparably linked. The
author, Kay Redfield Jamison, is a distinguished psychologist who has been
quite open about her own struggles with the same disease, and whose lifework
consists of exploring the link between Bipolar Disorder and creativity.
Eschewing a purely chronological approach, Jamison divides her work into sections entitled “Origins,” “Illness,” “Character,” “Illness and Art,” and “Mortality.” In the first, she traces the history of mental illness within the poet’s illustrious Boston family. We learn that Lowell’s great-great-grandmother was institutionalized at McLean Asylum for the Insane, which was to be the site of several of the poet’s own hospitalizations. “Illness” is a clinical case study in prodromal childhood symptoms that progress to full-blown manic episodes. We follow the progress made by 20th century psychiatry from psychotherapy and ECT to Thorazine, and, finally, with the introduction of Lithium, to the possibility of prophylaxis against recurrences. Later, in “Illness and Art,” Jamison brings her thoughts about creativity and art to full fruition by discussing what her research reveals about writers and artists.
Appendices include diagnostic criteria for Bipolar Disorder, and an explanation of how Lowell’s psychiatric and medical records were made available by his daughter for the benefit of this volume.
Eschewing a purely chronological approach, Jamison divides her work into sections entitled “Origins,” “Illness,” “Character,” “Illness and Art,” and “Mortality.” In the first, she traces the history of mental illness within the poet’s illustrious Boston family. We learn that Lowell’s great-great-grandmother was institutionalized at McLean Asylum for the Insane, which was to be the site of several of the poet’s own hospitalizations. “Illness” is a clinical case study in prodromal childhood symptoms that progress to full-blown manic episodes. We follow the progress made by 20th century psychiatry from psychotherapy and ECT to Thorazine, and, finally, with the introduction of Lithium, to the possibility of prophylaxis against recurrences. Later, in “Illness and Art,” Jamison brings her thoughts about creativity and art to full fruition by discussing what her research reveals about writers and artists.
Appendices include diagnostic criteria for Bipolar Disorder, and an explanation of how Lowell’s psychiatric and medical records were made available by his daughter for the benefit of this volume.
Miscellaneous
In a memoir, An Unquiet Mind
(1995), Jamison discusses her Bipolar diagnosis. Both this and Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the
Artistic Temperament (1994) are the subject of previous
Database annotations.
Robert Lowell’s essay “Near the Unbalanced Aquarium” is a first-person account of a manic episode and hospitalization. The narrator’s loose associations give a sense of the author’s thought process. This essay is found in Robert Lowell: Collected Prose (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 1990).
Robert Lowell’s essay “Near the Unbalanced Aquarium” is a first-person account of a manic episode and hospitalization. The narrator’s loose associations give a sense of the author’s thought process. This essay is found in Robert Lowell: Collected Prose (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 1990).
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Place Published
New York
Edition
2017
Page Count
527
Commentary
Quibbles aside, Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire is a substantial, impressive book. It can be recommended not only to those who enjoy poetry or the work of Robert Lowell, but to anyone who wants to learn about the relationship between art and mental illness from one of the top experts in the field.