Touched with Fire (book)

For the 2015 film, see Touched with Fire (film).

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament is a book by the American psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison examining the relationship between bipolar disorder and artistic creativity. It contains extensive case studies of historic writers, artists, and composers assessed as probably having had cyclothymia, major depressive disorder, or manic-depressive/bipolar disorder.^[1][2]

Touched with Fire

Author	Kay Redfield Jamison
Language	English
Subject	Creativity and bipolar disorder
Publisher	Free Press
ISBN	978-0-684-83183-1
OCLC	85753373

Reception

The book has widely been very favourably received.^[3][4] It has been the basis for scholarship on the topic of the relationship between bipolar disorder and 'artistic temperament'.^[5][6]

Cultural references

The film of the same name, directed and written by Paul Dalio (who is bipolar), 'draws from' the book and the book is a significant feature in its plot.^[7]