Exuberance: The Passion for Life Book

The author of the bestselling An Unquiet Mindâ??and internationally renowned authority on mood disordersâ??now gives us something wonderfully different: an exploration of exuberance and how it fuels our most important creative and scientific achievements.John Muirâ??s lifelong passion to save Americaâ??s wild places, Wilson Bentleyâ??s legendary obsession to record for posterity the beauty of individual snowflakes, the boundless scientific curiosity behind Watson and Crickâ??s discovery of DNA, sea lions that surf and porcupines that danceâ??Kay Redfield Jamison shows how these and many more examples both human and animal define the nature of exuberance, and how this exuberance relates to intellectual searching, risk-taking, creativity, and survival itself. She examines the hereditary predisposition to exuberance; the role of the brain chemical dopamine; the connection between positive moods and psychological resilience; and the differences between exuberance and mania. She delves into some of the phenomena of exuberanceâ??the contagiousness of laughter, the giddiness of new love, the intoxicating effects of music and of religious ecstasyâ??while also addressing the dangerous desire to simulate exuberance by using drugs or alcohol. In a fascinating and intimate coda to the rest of the book, renowned scientists, writers, and politicians share their thoughts on the forms and role of exuberance in their own lives.Original, inspiring, authoritative, Exuberance brims with the very energy and passion that it celebrates.Read More