If people have heard the word "exuberance" lately, it was probably in 1996, when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan famously declared that "irrational exuberance" had inflated stock prices. He meant that investors were far more upbeat than the underlying facts called for. His phrase made exuberance seem silly -- or worse, a disastrous mistake.
In her new book, "Exuberance: The Passion for Life" (Knopf), Kay Redfield Jamison offers a more complete view of the emotion, examining it in all its glories and pitfalls. Often mocked, frequently trivialized and routinely suspect, exuberance may be the most misunderstood of human feelings, Jamison argues.
Jamison should know a thing or two about it. A professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Jamison, 58, is a leading authority on mood disorders. She is author of five books on the subject, including "An Unquiet Mind" (Knopf, 1995), her moving memoir about her struggles with bipolar disorder -- a disease whose manic phases can resemble exuberance run amok.
But in its energy, ebullience, contagiousness and sheer pleasure, Jamison writes in her new book, which hits stores this month, exuberance can be powerful and healthy. It is the stuff of great leadership, adventure, art and science. "Exuberance," she says, "binds us to life, and to the future."
In a café near her home in Northwest Washington, Jamison -- looking girlish, relaxed and, yes, at times exuberant -- sliced into a peach muffin and talked about why exuberance is important, why we don't have enough of it in our lives and how we can harness its power.
How do you define exuberance?
Exuberance is a more energetic version of joy. It is a high-energy, high-mood state.
Why is it important to study exuberance?
I've always been interested in what makes some people vital and others not so. I wanted to say how exuberance had been seen by great writers. I wanted to interview living scientists who are exuberant, because scientists get a rap for being living drones. And to show interesting women doing such exciting work, particularly in neuroscience.
With the people I interviewed, I wanted to say, "Okay, everyone says you are exuberant -- what is it, and why is it important to you?" I wanted to write a book about what I loved.
So you are exuberant?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah! I've always seen life as fantastic. I couldn't wait to get up in the morning, didn't want to go to sleep at night, had a lot of things I wanted to do.
But you've struggled with manic-depression. Has your illness given you special insight into the high states of exuberance?
The majority of people who have manic-depression have an exuberant underlying temperament. All my life I've been very exuberant by temperament.
